By now, you’ve heard all about the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who is reported to have been killed at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey by a team of assassins who knew he would be coming and brought special tools with them for the job — including a bone saw, which was reportedly used to dismember the body.
In fact, you’ve probably already seen the Trump administration, his son Don Jr., and a number of right-wing pundits attempting to distance the victim from his connections to the United States in order to avoid having to deal with the problem, since Trump is in the middle of an enormous arms deal with the Saudi royals, arranged by Jared Kushner, worth more than a hundred billion dollars.
Trump would likely do anything to keep from upsetting that apple cart.
The problem is, Donald Trump’s ties to the Saudis — specifically to the family of the slain journalist — were captured on video some 30 years ago, when Trump appeared on David Letterman’s late-night show and discussed a major purchase he had just made:
That’s right, Donald Trump bought a yacht from Adnan Khashoggi, the most notorious arms dealer in the world at that time, through the Sultan of Brunei, as part of a financial agreement.
Not only does that mark the beginning of at least a 30-year relationship between Trump and those involved in Saudi arms distribution, but it also ties Trump directly to the murdered reporter, whose last name you may have recognized the second time you saw it in this article: Jamal Khashoggi is the nephew of that murderous arms dealer that Trump bought his 300-foot yacht from.
In fact, it’s that connection that made Jamal a progressive, distancing himself from the family he was born into, and making himself a target for the Saudi government — the royal family.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to deny there’s any problem at all with his Saudi connections, or with the arms deal he has pending, decrying efforts to make him examine their human rights record:
Asked whether Saudi human rights record was overlooked, Trump: “I think a lot of records are overlooked. If you look at Iran, if you look at so many other countries, take a look at Syria. You take a look at a lot of countries, a lot of countries’ records have been overlooked.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 12, 2018
Perhaps Donald Trump is still just enjoying his yacht.
Featured image via screen capture
