A State-Orchestrated Comeback in Washington at the Expense of Justice and Truth
The scene had all the markings of a calculated diplomatic absolution—and it delivered. On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was received with full honors by Donald Trump, back in the White House. The strongman of Riyadh, long cast aside by the Western media-political complex, made a grand return under the wing of a U.S. president whose priority remains energy geopolitics over democratic virtue-signaling.
Inside the hushed halls of the Oval Office, Trump, now 79, dismissed out of hand the accusations linking MBS to the Khashoggi affair, well documented by the CIA. Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident journalist and U.S. resident, was assassinated and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. A state-sanctioned killing veiled as diplomatic mishap.
Trump Grants Redemption: A Brazen Act of Political Revisionism
“You’re talking about a very controversial man… Things happened,” Trump declared with his characteristic nonchalance—barely masking his disdain for mainstream narratives. The target of his ire? An ABC journalist whom he sharply cut off to defend “a very good friend.” In a country where the press is still theoretically a check on power, the moment was telling.
Welcoming MBS with fighter jet flyovers, mounted guards, and a White House gala dinner doesn’t merely normalize him—it elevates him. The Khashoggi affair has been reduced to a regrettable “mistake,” in the Crown Prince’s own words: “It’s painful, and a huge mistake. We are doing everything we can so it never happens again.” Curtain closed. Case dismissed.
Khashoggi’s Widow Demands Justice: A Lone Voice in the Diplomatic Desert
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the slain journalist’s widow, swiftly responded. In a post on X, she addressed MBS directly: “He should meet me, apologize, and compensate me for my husband’s murder.” A raw, dignified plea—but a lonely one, as Washington, Brussels, and even Paris pivot toward Riyadh with increasing eagerness.
MBS has understood the post-Western world better than most: outrage is for sale, condemnations are negotiable, and diplomatic redemption can be brokered via arms deals and investment packages. For Trump, the Khashoggi affair is nothing more than an inconvenient footnote, subordinate to “national interest.”
Biden Erased, Trump Triumphant: Diplomacy Without Illusions
Perhaps the most symbolic image of this carefully staged summit wasn’t the handshake or the mutual praise—but a portrait gallery in which Joe Biden had been replaced by an automatic signing machine. A cynical jab, yes—but also a declaration of intent: the Biden era of moral posturing and attempts to exile MBS is over.
The message is clear: realpolitik is back, raw and unfiltered. That the Saudi Crown Prince is credibly accused of state-sponsored murder? Irrelevant, as long as he guarantees oil price stability, military contracts, and a Sunni bulwark against Iran. In this new-old order, morality is a luxury, and memory a burden.
As the gilded ceremony fades and the headlines shift, the truth about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder remains buried beneath the plush carpets of official diplomacy. Once again, the so-called rules-based Western order proves itself comfortably pliable in the face of petrochemical pragmatism.
