His Kind Of People

       Even if Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince to the Saudi Throne and ruler of Saudi Arabia, weren't a murderer and a tyrant who has criminalized freedom of speech and the press,

...that is to say, even if he were a relatively decent human being as world leaders go,  and even if he were - God forbid - our number one best ally on the planet,  it still would have been just as nausea-inducing to watch Donald Trump lay the flattery on bin Salman with a trowel - and, in typical Trump fashion, not skimp on a heaping portion of self-flattery while he was at it - at a press conference several days ago during the Saudi leader's visit to the White House.

      Trump praised bin Salman's abysmal human rights record. He berated ABC chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce for asking bin Salman about the kidnapping, murder, and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which American intelligence linked without question to the Saudi Crown Prince. Trump stood up for bin Salman, proclaimed his innocence in Khashoggi's murder, spoke disparagingly of Khashoggi, and snapped at Mary Bruce, “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that, a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.”
       And during Trump's hugely embarrassing tirade against the American journalist, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud sat there looking absolutely sinless.

      But behind his benign countenance bin Salman was doubtless yucking it up at this vain old American President who had just publicly promised him the farm when he announced that the United States was selling Saudi Arabia - which has recently become more than a little chummy with China - five of our best, newest, most technically advanced fighter jets that no previous president would allow to be sold to the Saudis.
        Along with the plane deal Trump also announced - bragged - that he'd persuaded bin Salman to invest a trillion dollars in the the United States. But exactly where the money will be invested was not made clear:  will it be invested in the Trump family crypto business? The Trump family private equity ventures? The building of the Arc de Trump in Washington DC? The refurbishing of the luxury plane gifted from Qatar to Trump? Or might the money be invested in our housing, our infrastructure, our health sciences? And if it were invested in any of those public benefits, would we really want Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman owning $1 trillion of our country?
        Trump apparently continued love-bombing bin Salman for the rest of his visit. 

    (And apparently not only Trump).

    And who wants to bet that Trump was still on a Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud sugar high yesterday when he announced on his social media post that six members of the United States Congress should be put to death for a Facebook post in which they reminded members of the military that they can and must refuse to carry out illegal orders?

     Here's the link to the post:
      https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2558895077819811

     But anyway, it was when I came across this particular picture in the New York Times of Trump and bin Salman together that Donald Trump's desire of satisfy, gratify, please and accommodate Mohammed bin Salman became clear.

        It was how at ease the two looked together, Trump's hand on bin Salman's back in the casually affectionate way of friends. And I thought, this explains Trump's preferential treatment of bin Salman. It's not about building a strategic alliance or procuring a good deal for our nation; it's about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman being Donald Trump's kind of people. It's about bin Salman being someone Trump feels comfortable and good around, someone with whom he can relax and be himself. Someone who, though he comes from the other side of the world, none the less comes from Trump's world. A world of palatial wealth,

...gilded opulence,

...unlimited life long privilege and the belief - if not the reality - that one is entitled to anything one wishes for, including unchecked power.
       People from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and a dozen or so more states may believe that they are Donald Trump's people. But they're not.
​       This is Donald Trump's people.