John Oliver slams Donald Trump’s ‘bromance’ with Saudi crown prince

The late-night host said Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are “similar in some of the worst possible ways.”

October 15, 2018

2 minutes to read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDPIyiszoo

On Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver took President Donald Trump to task for his response to the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, a journalist who has been critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Turkish officials claim they have audio of Khashoggi being killed inside the consulate.

On Thursday Trump expressed reluctance to to impose sanctions against Saudi Arabia because he said the country was spending $110 billion in the U.S. on weapons sales. (In a fact check of Trump’s $110 billion figure, the Post gave Trump four Pinocchios, saying that the country has only spent $4 billion so far.)

“Again, this took place in Turkey, and to the best of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not a United States citizen, is that right?” Trump said in a video clip of a press conference featured by Oliver. “He’s a permanent resident, OK. … We don’t like it, and we don’t like it even a little bit. But as to whether or not we should stop 110 billion dollars from being spent in this country knowing they have four or five alternatives, two very good alternatives, that would not be acceptable to make.”

Trump vowed to “find out what happened” to Khashoggi when asked about the situation prior to a Friday rally, and vowed there would be “severe punishment” during a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday.

In his criticism of the president, Oliver said Trump and the crown prince (also known as “MBS”) are “similar in some of the worst possible ways,” including a love of money and self-promotion, a hatred of the press, and a design aesthetic that Oliver described as “Elvis tries to remember what Versailles looks like, but can’t,” flashing side-by-side photos of Trump and MBS sitting in gold-covered rooms.

“Trump’s intense bromance with MBS is bad news because when you set no boundaries on an oppressive regime, they are always going to ask themselves, ‘How much can we get away with here?’” Oliver said. “And as we saw this week, the answer to that may well be, ‘Pretty much anything.'”