Sitting in the Oval Office at the White House — which he has turned from a stirring, elegant place where the free world conducts business into a gilded room like the bathrooms in his penthouse — this week Donald Trump looked more excited than he has in a long time. Beside him sat the most important man in his world today: Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudi Crown Prince whose private dealings with Trump’s family are bringing the Trump clan billions of dollars. Trump smiled and chuckled, held MBS’s hand, greeted him with a red carpet and an Air Force fly‑by, promised him advanced fighter jets, said they “agree on everything,” and hosted him at a lavish dinner with high‑tech and crypto oligarchs, and Cristiano Ronaldo as the decorative empty shell.
The Jeffrey Epstein files, which are gnawing at Trump’s support even among his staunchest loyalists, stopped bothering him for a day; suddenly, unlike the case with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, there was no trouble with the visitor not wearing a suit in the Oval Office; suddenly the man whom U.S. intelligence concluded directly ordered the killing of a U.S.‑resident journalist is “doing an incredible job on human rights.” Even MBS looked slightly embarrassed.
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Trump in the Oval Office
(Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
And speaking of Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi agents and whose body was dismembered at the behest of the revered guest, well — if you ask Trump, it’s sort of what he deserved because he was “very controversial and many people didn’t like him.” And anyway, “things happen,” and MBS told us “nothing” about it. And journalist Mary Bruce, who had the gall to ask about it and about Epstein, should be fired for being “insubordinate,” and ABC News should just be shut down because of her.
Trump also told Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey this week to “shut up, piggy,” after she asked him about the Epstein files. Because in what was once a country admired for its free press, you are no longer allowed to ask questions the president doesn’t like. Especially not when the questioner is a woman.
Of course, the U.S. government often advances its interests by cooperating with unsavory people. Realpolitik is a necessity. That’s one thing - to reluctantly work with such actors because you have no choice, but Donald Trump doesn’t just want to work with MBS, nor is he just making a lot of money from their relationship: he admires him and wants to be like him.
Trump has always dreamed of being a king. It’s no accident that he’s obsessive about the British monarchy and is tearing up the White House to build himself a golden State Ballroom — but in his version he is much more Mohammed bin Salman than King Charles.
The entire concept of American democracy seems odd and foreign to him. In his view, he is the state and the state is him, and his interests are equal to those of the U.S., so the massive real‑estate deal the Trump family is about to seal with the Saudi royal family is, of course, a good deal for America. Likewise, the $20 billion aid to Argentina, because the failed President Javier Milei is a friend of Trump, while millions of Americans are losing their health insurance.
Tzippy Shmilovitz Photo: Family Album“America First” has always meant “Trump First,” and Trump First has always been at odds with America’s historic ideals — democracy and rule of law, checks and balances, freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and the right of comedians to mock the president.
The U.S. was vulnerable to the scenario of a corrupt billionaire longing for 19th‑century hierarchy and with enough charisma to bring tens of millions of people with him, but one could hope it wouldn’t happen in a way that renders useless the values on which the great American experiment was built. It will take American democracy many years to repair the damage that Donald Trump has caused and will still cause, but it might well take even longer to recover from the corruption and moral decay he has brought with him.