Trump can use US' leverage over Saudi Arabia to call its bluff on Khashoggi

Trump knows that the leverage in the U.S.-Saudi relationship lies mainly on the American side: as he himself put it recently, King Salman wouldn't last "two weeks" without US support

Prevarication has long been the politician’s stock-in-trade, but President Donald Trump’s attempt to have it both ways over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is no longer tenable.

He has promised “severe punishment” if the government of Saudi Arabia is found to have harmed the Washington Post columnist. But he has expressed reluctance to press harder for fear of losing Saudi defense contracts and the American jobs they sustain. He has called the Saudi king to seek answers, but rather than wait for a full investigation into the mystery, he has chosen to float a conspiracy theory about “rogue killers.” 

While Trump