Do human rights matter to Trump?

By referring to Saudi Arabia as an innocent party, the US president has made clear that he is prioritising the nation’s economy, not its morality, says Zeke Miller.

If it’s an ‘America First’ presidency, where does that rank human rights?

US president Donald Trump’s refusal to put public pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising a question that has dogged his foreign policy.

In dealing with Russia, across Asia, and, this week, in the Middle East, Mr Trump has often appeared comfortable downplaying concerns about rights abuses and dismissing the importance of US moral leadership. The one-time real estate mogul is as likely to let US financial or security interests guide his choices and his words.

This week Mr Trump repeated the Saudi royals’ denials of any involvement in Mr Khashoggi’s apparent killing and suggested that he trusted them.

“I spoke to the crown prince, so you have that,” said Mr Trump. “He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important.”

He compared blame directed at the Saudis over Mr Khashoggi, who Turkish officials have said was killed in the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault levelled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. Both, he suggested, had been considered “guilty until proven innocent”.

Not many US leaders would cast Saudi Arabia as innocent. Saudi Arabia is engaged in a bloody civil war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and exacerbated a famine that has killed many more. Domestically, the absolute monarchy strictly regulates speech and dress, and its security services have been accused of torture.

Mr Trump has shown no interest in calling out the kingdom over Mr Khashoggi — or calling out Russian president Vladimir Putin on assassinations, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on political prisoners, or the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte over his ‘anti-drug’ vigilante death squads. Where past presidents in both parties used their office to promote US values and ideals — even when their action didn’t align — Mr Trump has rarely seized the chance. Instead, he says what others would not, openly embracing the compromises he justifies as best for the American bottom line.

We’re not going to walk away from Saudi Arabia. I don’t want to do that

- he told Fox Business News on Wednesday.

Mr Trump made clear that he was prioritising the nation’s economy, not its morality.

“I don’t like stopping massive amounts of money that is being poured into our country,” said Mr Trump last week. “I know they are talking about different kinds of sanctions, but [the Saudis] are spending $110bn on military equipment and on things that create jobs for this country. I don’t like the concept of stopping an investment of $110bn into the United States.”

White House aides have suggested that while Mr Trump is reluctant to criticise certain world leaders publicly — most notably when he did not upbraid Mr Putin at their Helsinki summit — he has been willing to deliver tough messages behind closed doors. They have pointed to his discipline with Mr Kim and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, two authoritarian leaders who eventually released Americans held in their custody.

Still, Mr Trump’s transactional approach isn’t sitting well with some of his Republican allies in Congress. His party for years championed the idea that the US had a duty to promote US values and human rights and even to intervene when they are challenged. Some Republicans have urged Mr Trump not to abandon that view.

“I’m open to having Congress sit down with the president if this all turns out to be true — and it looks like it is — and saying: ‘How can we express our condemnation without blowing up the Middle East?” said Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana. “Our foreign policy has to be anchored in values.”

Mr Trump dismisses the notion that he buddies up to dictators, but he does not express a sense that US leadership extends beyond the US border.

In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, he brushed aside his own assessment that Mr Putin was “probably” involved in assassinations and poisonings.

“But I rely on them,” he said. “It’s not in our country.”

Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia are complex.

The two nations are entwined on energy, military, economic, and intelligence issues. The Trump administration has aggressively courted the Saudis for support of its Middle East agenda to counter Iranian influence, fight extremism, and try to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

One key for the US administration has been the bond between two young princes. Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman are frequently in contact, and their relationship played a role in Riyadh being the unlikely first stop on the new US president’s maiden international trip in 2017. Mr Trump, despite endorsing a travel ban on many Muslim-majority countries, became the first US president to make his official first trip to an Islamic nation.

The over-the-top greeting Mr Trump received in Riyadh — complete with sword dances, gleaming palaces, and images of him on the sides of buildings and highway signs — set the template for how he would be received on future foreign trips, with hosts leaning on flattery and pageantry.

“If you look at Saudi Arabia, they’re an ally, and they’re a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment but other things,” said Mr Trump. “When I went there, they committed to purchase $450bn worth of things and $110bn worth of military. Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country, probably the history of the world... And you remember that day in Saudi Arabia where that commitment was made.”