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Donald Trump holds a sword and sways with traditional dancers during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace. (Photo: AP)
'Groveling' Before Murderous Kingdom, Trump Complains Saudis Deemed 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent' Like Kavanaugh
"Trump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent."
Oct 17, 2018
As a new flurry of evidence from the Turkish government established direct ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and those who allegedly carried out the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. President Donald Trump continued "groveling" at the feet of the murderous kingdom Tuesday night by claiming that the Saudis have been deemed "guilty until proven innocent" just like newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of sexual assault.
"If I were Brett Kavanaugh I'm not sure how I'd feel about joining the Saudi royal family on Trump's list of the 'wrongly accused.'"
--Tim Wu, Columbia University"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump told the Associated Press in an interview just hours after Al Jazeera reported more "shocking" details of Khashoggi's torture and assassination inside Saudi Arabia's Turkish embassy. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."
Completely ignoring the rapidly growing body of evidence implicating the Saudis in Khashoggi's murder, Trump went on to say that King Salaman "just sounded to me like he felt like he did not do it."
"I spoke to the crown prince, so you have that. He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important," Trump continued. "And I spoke to him with [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo there. And the crown prince. I spoke to the king yesterday, the crown prince, today wanting to know what was going on, what was happening, and he said very strongly that he and his father knew nothing about it."
Responding to Trump's invocation of the "Kavanaugh defense" on behalf of the Saudi regime--which came shortly after the president dutifully echoed the kingdom's denials on Twitter--Jeet Heer of the New Republic quipped that "Trump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent."
\u201cTrump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent.\u201d— Jeet Heer (@Jeet Heer) 1539730231
Despite Trump's best efforts to run interference for the Saudis, evidence directly implicating the kingdom's leadership in the torture and killing of Khashoggi two weeks ago in Istanbul continued to emerge Tuesday night, when the New York Times "confirmed independently that at least nine of 15 suspects identified by Turkish authorities worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries."
"There is not a doubt in my mind that U.S. intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi. Trump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement."
--Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund
"One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston, and the United Nations," the Times reported. "Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince's security detail."
In its report, the Times published photographs of diplomat Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb and others allegedly involved in Khashoggi's murder.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow featured the photos from the Times report in a segment Tuesday night:
\u201cNYTimes identifies one of the suspects named by Turkey in photos with MBS from earlier this year. (https://t.co/Sv1nKB6orr)\u201d— Maddow Blog (@Maddow Blog) 1539739287
"There is not a doubt in my mind that U.S. intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi," Ploughshares Fund president Joe Cirincione wrote on Twitter in response to the Times report. "Trump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement. Pompeo's smile-filled meetings are a disgrace."
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As a new flurry of evidence from the Turkish government established direct ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and those who allegedly carried out the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. President Donald Trump continued "groveling" at the feet of the murderous kingdom Tuesday night by claiming that the Saudis have been deemed "guilty until proven innocent" just like newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of sexual assault.
"If I were Brett Kavanaugh I'm not sure how I'd feel about joining the Saudi royal family on Trump's list of the 'wrongly accused.'"
--Tim Wu, Columbia University"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump told the Associated Press in an interview just hours after Al Jazeera reported more "shocking" details of Khashoggi's torture and assassination inside Saudi Arabia's Turkish embassy. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."
Completely ignoring the rapidly growing body of evidence implicating the Saudis in Khashoggi's murder, Trump went on to say that King Salaman "just sounded to me like he felt like he did not do it."
"I spoke to the crown prince, so you have that. He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important," Trump continued. "And I spoke to him with [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo there. And the crown prince. I spoke to the king yesterday, the crown prince, today wanting to know what was going on, what was happening, and he said very strongly that he and his father knew nothing about it."
Responding to Trump's invocation of the "Kavanaugh defense" on behalf of the Saudi regime--which came shortly after the president dutifully echoed the kingdom's denials on Twitter--Jeet Heer of the New Republic quipped that "Trump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent."
\u201cTrump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent.\u201d— Jeet Heer (@Jeet Heer) 1539730231
Despite Trump's best efforts to run interference for the Saudis, evidence directly implicating the kingdom's leadership in the torture and killing of Khashoggi two weeks ago in Istanbul continued to emerge Tuesday night, when the New York Times "confirmed independently that at least nine of 15 suspects identified by Turkish authorities worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries."
"There is not a doubt in my mind that U.S. intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi. Trump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement."
--Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund
"One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston, and the United Nations," the Times reported. "Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince's security detail."
In its report, the Times published photographs of diplomat Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb and others allegedly involved in Khashoggi's murder.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow featured the photos from the Times report in a segment Tuesday night:
\u201cNYTimes identifies one of the suspects named by Turkey in photos with MBS from earlier this year. (https://t.co/Sv1nKB6orr)\u201d— Maddow Blog (@Maddow Blog) 1539739287
"There is not a doubt in my mind that U.S. intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi," Ploughshares Fund president Joe Cirincione wrote on Twitter in response to the Times report. "Trump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement. Pompeo's smile-filled meetings are a disgrace."
As a new flurry of evidence from the Turkish government established direct ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and those who allegedly carried out the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. President Donald Trump continued "groveling" at the feet of the murderous kingdom Tuesday night by claiming that the Saudis have been deemed "guilty until proven innocent" just like newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of sexual assault.
"If I were Brett Kavanaugh I'm not sure how I'd feel about joining the Saudi royal family on Trump's list of the 'wrongly accused.'"
--Tim Wu, Columbia University"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump told the Associated Press in an interview just hours after Al Jazeera reported more "shocking" details of Khashoggi's torture and assassination inside Saudi Arabia's Turkish embassy. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."
Completely ignoring the rapidly growing body of evidence implicating the Saudis in Khashoggi's murder, Trump went on to say that King Salaman "just sounded to me like he felt like he did not do it."
"I spoke to the crown prince, so you have that. He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important," Trump continued. "And I spoke to him with [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo there. And the crown prince. I spoke to the king yesterday, the crown prince, today wanting to know what was going on, what was happening, and he said very strongly that he and his father knew nothing about it."
Responding to Trump's invocation of the "Kavanaugh defense" on behalf of the Saudi regime--which came shortly after the president dutifully echoed the kingdom's denials on Twitter--Jeet Heer of the New Republic quipped that "Trump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent."
\u201cTrump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent.\u201d— Jeet Heer (@Jeet Heer) 1539730231
Despite Trump's best efforts to run interference for the Saudis, evidence directly implicating the kingdom's leadership in the torture and killing of Khashoggi two weeks ago in Istanbul continued to emerge Tuesday night, when the New York Times "confirmed independently that at least nine of 15 suspects identified by Turkish authorities worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries."
"There is not a doubt in my mind that U.S. intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi. Trump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement."
--Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund
"One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston, and the United Nations," the Times reported. "Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince's security detail."
In its report, the Times published photographs of diplomat Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb and others allegedly involved in Khashoggi's murder.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow featured the photos from the Times report in a segment Tuesday night:
\u201cNYTimes identifies one of the suspects named by Turkey in photos with MBS from earlier this year. (https://t.co/Sv1nKB6orr)\u201d— Maddow Blog (@Maddow Blog) 1539739287
"There is not a doubt in my mind that U.S. intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi," Ploughshares Fund president Joe Cirincione wrote on Twitter in response to the Times report. "Trump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement. Pompeo's smile-filled meetings are a disgrace."
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LATEST NEWS
'There Will Be Blood': JPMorgan Hikes Odds of Trump-Triggered Recession to 60%
"The president single-handedly wiped out Americans' retirement savings overnight and subjected businesses to intense whiplash with his increasingly erratic and chaotic policies that continue to drive consumer and business uncertainty."
Apr 04, 2025
Alarm over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs continues to grow, with stocks plummeting and JPMorgan warning that "the risk of recession in the global economy this year is raised to 60%, up from 40%."
After China announced new 34% tariffs on all American goods beginning next week, The Associated Press reported Friday that "the S&P 500 was down 4.8% in afternoon trading, after earlier dropping more than 5%, following its worst day since Covid wrecked the global economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,719 points, or 4.3%, as of 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.9% lower."
Noting the state of Wall Street this week, Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens declared in a Friday statement that "Trump has officially brought the economy to its knees."
"The president single-handedly wiped out Americans' retirement savings overnight and subjected businesses to intense whiplash with his increasingly erratic and chaotic policies that continue to drive consumer and business uncertainty," she said. "To call this an economic downturn is an understatement; Trump is marching us straight into a depression."
Political and economic observers have been publicly wondering for weeks if Trump is intentionally crashing the economy. Further fueling those fears, he ramped up his trade war on Wednesday by announcing a minimum 10% tariff for imports, with higher levies for dozens of countries. Although he claimed those steeper duties are "reciprocal," his math "horrified" economists and has been called "crazy."
Responding in a Thursday note titled, There Will Be Blood, head of global economic research Bruce Kasman and other experts at JPMorgan wrote that "if sustained, this year's ~22%-point tariff increase would be the largest U.S. tax hike since 1968."
"The effect of this tax hike is likely to be magnified—through retaliation, a slide in U.S. business sentiment, and supply chain disruptions," states the note, which came before China's announcement.
As Bloomberg reported:
Several Wall Street firms on Thursday warned of a U.S. recession, with some making it their base case, after... Trump announced major levies on goods imported from countries around the world. Other economists, including those at JPMorgan, said the hit could be big, though they are taking a wait-and-see approach before revising their projections.
The announcement rocked global financial markets, and the S&P 500 suffered its worst day since 2020. Trump, speaking on Air Force One on Thursday afternoon, said he was open to reducing tariffs if trading partners were able to offer something "phenomenal."
"We are not making immediate changes to our forecasts and want to see the initial implementation and negotiation process that takes hold," the JPMorgan note says. "However, we view the full implementation of announced policies as a substantial macroeconomic shock not currently incorporated in our forecasts. We thus emphasize that these policies, if sustained, would likely push the U.S. and possibly global economy into recession this year."
The team also pointed out that the United States is in potential danger no matter how other countries are ultimately impacted, calling a "scenario where rest of world muddles through a U.S. recession possible but less likely than global downturn."
As Common Dreams reported last week, in anticipation of Trump's tariff announcement, Goldman Sachs published a research note projecting that the odds of a recession in the next year are 35%, up from 20%.
Other financial industry research firms that have recently warned of a possible recession include Barclays, BofA Global Research, Deutsche Bank, RBC Capital Markets, and UBS Global Wealth Management, according to Reuters.
"This is a game-changer, not only for the U.S. economy, but for the global economy. Many countries will likely end up in a recession," Olu Sonola, head of U.S. economic research at Fitch Ratings, said in a late Wednesday note about the levies. "You can throw most forecasts out the door, if this tariff rate stays on for an extended period of time."
Experts have made similar comments to the press in the wake of the president's Rose Garden remarks on Wednesday. Time on Friday shared some from Brian Bethune, a Boston College economics professor:
"[Consumers] are not even going to the grocery store and paying more for vegetables because there's none available from Mexico, or going to Whole Foods, for example, and finding the big sections of fresh fruit are being shut down. They haven't really felt the full impact [yet], and they're already saying something isn't right," Bethune says.
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"At least they [the Trump administration] are not pretending that it's not disruptive, but they're basically soft-selling it, reflecting their ignorance about the way business operates," Bethune claims.
Also on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest U.S. jobs data. Although the unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.2% in March, the economy added 228,000 jobs, which was better than expected.
However, economists warn of what lies ahead. As University of Michican economics professor Betsey Stevenson put it, "Today's jobs report is like looking at your vacation photos after you had a horrible car crash on the way home."
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A list of locations for the events, which are not all slated to start at the same time on Saturday, can be found here.
Trump and Musk "think this country belongs to them," according to a website for the Hands Off! events. "This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history."
"They want to strip America for parts—shuttering Social Security offices, firing essential workers, eliminating consumer protections, and gutting Medicaid—all to bankroll their billionaire tax scam. They're handing over our tax dollars, our public services, and our democracy to the ultra-rich," according to the website's about page, which also notes nonviolent action is a "core principle" behind the events.
A spokesperson for the events told Common Dreams on Friday afternoon that the events have generated over 500,000 signups nationally, a number that is "growing rapidly," and there are over 1,000 events taking place on Saturday, a number that is "also growing steadily."
The actions are the latest warning sign for the Republican Party under Trump, who has allowed Elon Musk to play a core role in his administration, particularly in the administration's efforts to carry out cuts to federal personnel and spending.
Musk poured millions of dollars into a high-profile Wisconsin Supreme Court election that took place on April 1—helping to make it the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history by one tally—only to have his preferred candidate, judge Brad Schimel, lose.
"This is a huge signal from a battleground state that Americans are genuinely upset, genuinely angry, I think, with Trump and with Musk," said John Nichols, a correspondent for That Nation, when recapping the outcome of the race on Democracy Now!
Dozens of unions, watchdogs, and advocacy groups—such as Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Americans for Tax Fairness, and Accountable.US—are supporting the action as partners.
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The environmentalist iIll McKibben wrote on Bluesky on Wednesday: "Expect to see a lot of gray hair at the April 5 Hands Off rallies—we've been organizing like crazy at Third Act," a group that mobilizes Americans over the age of 60.
In early February, anti-Trump "Movement 50501" protests took place nationwide and protestors united under the slogan #TakedownTesla have also targeted Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company, in recent weeks.
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One union leader called President Donald Trump's executive order "the most significant assault on collective bargaining rights we have ever seen in the United States."
Apr 04, 2025
A coalition of labor unions representing federal workers across the United States sued the Trump administration on Friday over its recent order aimed at stripping union rights from more than a million government employees, a move that the lawsuit characterizes as a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
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"Federal employees have had the right to join a union and bargain collectively for decades—through multiple wars, international conflicts, and a global health emergency during President Trump's first term," said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "During all that time, they served the American people with honor and distinction. No one, including President Trump, ever suggested unions were a national security concern."
"Trump's newest order to revoke union rights is a clear case of retaliation," he added. "But I've got news for him: We are not going anywhere."
The lawsuit points specifically to language included in a fact sheet the White House released in conjunction with Trump's March 27 order. The document claims that "certain federal unions have declared war on President Trump's agenda," citing AFGE lawsuits against the administration and legal actions by Veterans Affairs unions.
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"The labor movement stands in solidarity, and we will not let this administration's union-busting tactics silence us."
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Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), called Trump's order "the most significant assault on collective bargaining rights we have ever seen in the United States" and said it is "clear that this executive order is retaliation for federal unions fighting back against the Trump administration's attempts to dismantle the civil service."
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