Forgetting Jamal Khashoggi: Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia and brute realism

Such a view is replicated in the Tuesday Global Magnitsky letter to Trump from Corker and ranking member, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), requesting "that your determination specifically address whether Crown Prince Mohamed [sic] bin Salman is responsible for Mr Khashoggi's murder."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is more businesslike in tone, suggesting that enough house cleaning has already taken place. The governing Saudi royal family is never mentioned; specific individuals are, a point that keeps the House of Saud distant from the bloody matter. "We've sanctioned 17 people – some of them very senior in the Saudi government," he told KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri.

Rounding off such an approach is the extravagant claim by Trump that he controls the levers, holds the strings, and is captain of the ship. The world is his market, his veritable playground. He can influence interest rates; he can control oil prices. "Oil prices getting lower," he tweeted. "Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy!"

Khashoggi should be remembered as much as the victim of state-sanctioned murder as one of unjust ennoblement at the hands of his morally infatuated exploiters. Trump's diminution of his fate is crude but violently frank: the US has preferred a different approach to other states whose governments have seemed fit to suspend arms sales. All will quietly normalise matters in due course, keen to avoid losing market share to competitors. "Enjoy!" as Trump might well toot, followed by triumphant tones of "Told you so!"