‘I don’t give a hell where that hand’s been’

Trump’s lovefest with MBS is all the more reason to investigate Vindman claim

By Sam Bellamy

This week, Sean Duffy – the former reality TV star cast as Trump’s transportation secretary – unveiled a campaign to encourage greater civility in airline travel.

For example, don’t wear your pajamas to the airport, do help others put their carry-ons in the overhead bins and, if you see a group of fellow passengers storm the cockpit, please don’t make a scene.

Those folks are guests of the airline, too.

OK, not really – Duffy didn’t go as far as to suggest we should extend Mohammed bin Salman treatment to people who egregiously disturb a flight’s decorum and landability.

That level of deference should be reserved for guests accused of overseeing the killing and dismemberment of journalists who piss them off. In such scenarios, all good Americans are to look the other way and focus on their complimentary snack.

By now, you’ve probably read about or watched video of Trump berating an ABC News reporter for daring to ask about the Saudi crown prince’s alleged involvement in the brutal 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi. In case you haven’t, I’ve attached a clip below from Trump’s local paper, the Palm Beach Post.

Khashoggi, you no doubt recall, was a Saudi national and legal permanent resident of Virginia who wrote op-ed columns for The Washington Post that were frequently critical of Saudi government. Seven years ago, he entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document for his upcoming wedding. He never came out.

During the Biden administration, U.S. intelligence officials released a report concluding that MBS had ordered the killing of The Post columnist and that members of his elite personal security team were part of the 15-person hit squad.

According to The New York Times, then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and other American officials “listened to a recording obtained by Turkish intelligence that not only captured Mr. Khashoggi’s struggle against Saudi agents and his killing, but also the sounds of the saw being used on his body.”

The Biden administration later imposed sanctions against the Saudis but took no action against the prince directly, a decision blasted by Democrats like California’s Adam Schiff, who said MBS had “blood on his hands.”

This week, Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for the crown prince’s visit to the White House and yukked it up with him as if nothing had ever happened. He called MBS “one of the most respected people in the world.”

ABC’s Mary Bruce did her job, however, and asked a couple of obvious questions – is it appropriate for the Trump family business to cut deals in Saudi Arabia while he’s in office, and did MBS have a comment about allegations that he was involved in Khashoggi’s death and that the Saudi government aided the 9/11 hijackers?

Trump lost his temper, as he seems to do with increasing regularity these days.

“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump snapped, referring to Khashoggi. “Whether you like him, or didn’t like him, things happen. But [MBS] knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”

Later, when Bruce asked why Trump didn’t release the Epstein files rather than wait for then-pending House and Senate votes, the president exploded again, attacking the reporter and – as he has before – threatening to revoke the network’s broadcasting license.

Trump called Bruce “insubordinate” – a blunt expression of his belief that journalists work for him and should do what he wants.

(MBS, incidentally, also appears in the Epstein files. In email messages released last week, Epstein refers to a trip to Saudi Arabia and a subsequent gift from MBS of a tent filled with carpets. No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against MBS. In that regard.)

It was quite obvious before this week that Trump didn’t give a shit about Khashoggi. Trump did not take action when the killing occurred during his first term. In fact, he and his family expanded their business ties in Saudi Arabia.

In May, on an official state visit, Trump toured a massive $63-billion real estate development in Diriyah led by the crown prince. According to The New York Times, the Trump organization – ostensibly managed by Trump’s sons without the president’s involvement – is working on a deal to add a Trump-branded property to the development.

“It turned out to be a good stroke of luck and maybe a little bit clever of us to say, ‘OK, let’s appeal to him as a developer’ – and he loved it,” Jerry Inzerillo, a longtime Trump friend who is CEO of the Diriyah project, said.

Yes, a stroke of luck. You just never know when appealing to Trump’s greed will … will … hell, never mind.

Aside from his rage against Mary Bruce, I don’t recall any recent video or still photos of Trump looking quite as happy as he did with the crown prince. I think I’d have to go back to images of his rollicking good times with his longtime wingman Jeffrey Epstein for a comparison.

Trump’s glee almost outshone the ornate Home Depot fixtures he’s slapped on nearly every bare space in the Oval Office. And, of course, the celebration included a customary attack on his predecessor Joe Biden, who famously declined to shake MBS’s hand during a post-Khashoggi meeting and opted for an awkward fist bump instead.

“Trump doesn’t give a fist bump,” Trump crowed this week, referring to himself in the third person and pointing to the prince. “I grabbed that hand. I don’t give a hell where that hand’s been. I grabbed that.”

Not everyone, notably Rep. Eugene Vindman of Virginia, was amused by the two cutups.

This week, Vindman stood on the House floor and called for the White House to release the transcript of a call between Trump and MBS after Khashoggi’s killing.

Vindman, the former National Security Council member whose brother Alexander blew the whistle on Trump’s effort to get Volodymyr Zelensky to attack the Biden family, says the president’s call with the prince had deeply troubled him. Vindman wouldn’t disclose what was said on the call.

“You will be shocked by what you hear,” he posted on X.

That’s quite a claim, given what we see and hear routinely from Trump.

But, sure, let’s hear it. Shock us. We’re always up for the possibility that he in turn will be tasered and hauled away.