Trump’s Praise of MBS After Khashoggi’s Murder Is Without Modern Precedent

"Things happen."

That was President Donald Trump's assessment of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer suffocated, dismembered, and disappeared inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Two words delivered in the Oval Office earlier this month as though the assassination of a resident journalist could be categorized alongside a diplomatic scheduling mishap.

Khashoggi lived here. He worked here. He wrote for an American newspaper and spent his final year urging openness in a region where speech often invites retaliation. He understood the danger of criticizing the powerful. He also believed Mohammed bin Salman, a crown prince young enough to shape a new era, might be persuaded that dissent was not treason. He died believing dialogue still carried weight.

When Trump welcomed M