Things happen. On another fever dream of a day in and around the power citadels of Washington, a unique coalition of women cast a cloud over US president Donald Trump’s hosting of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) at the White House. On the steps of the Capitol, a gathering of women who survived, as adolescents, Jeffrey Epstein’s regime of trafficking and sexual abuse, spoke out even as the House unanimously voted to pass the Bill to release those contentious files.
“To the president of the United States of America who is not here today. I want to send a clear message to you,” one speaker said.
“While I do understand your position has changed on the Epstein files and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this Bill, I can’t help to be sceptical of what the agenda is.”
The women carried photographs of the young girls they were before encountering Epstein. Joining them was Georgia Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, for years the most vociferous and aggressive champion of the cult of Trump but, in recent weeks, an unyielding voice in her demand that the files be released.
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“I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no actually six years for,” Taylor Greene said.
“And I gave my loyalty for free. I won my first election without his endorsement, beating eight men in a primary. I never owed him anything but I fought for him for the policies and for America First. And he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign country and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me.”
It was another blistering broadside and it coincided with an extraordinary scene in the Oval Office as Trump took exception to a question delivered by ABC correspondent Mary Bruce, who was one of the first journalists to speak after the president had delivered a glowing tribute to his friendship with “MBS”.
After asking Trump if it was appropriate for his family to engage in business deals with Saudi Arabia while he was in office, Bruce quickly followed with this to the royal guest: “Your royal highness, the US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr president.”
[ Donald Trump feuds with once ally Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of Epstein voteOpens in new window ]
Trump had begun to bristle and call “who are you with?” before the question was finished. His response, delivered through anger, amounted to a staunch defence of his guest. “A lot of people don’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he [bin Salman] knew nothing about it.”
The things that happened in this case was that Jamal Khashoggi, the renowned Saudi Arabian journalist and columnist for the Washington Post, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 and was murdered in an act which included dismemberment with a bone saw.
“These distortions dishonour Khashoggi’s legacy, stand at odds with the facts and are beneath the office of the president” read the editorial in Tuesday’s edition of the Post.
“Exiled in Virginia, Khashoggi wrote on these pages about the Saudi regime’s repressiveness at home and recklessness abroad. This got under Mohammed’s skin. So, the CIA concluded in 2018, the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. He was lured into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where a hit team, including members of Mohammed’s personal security detail, used a bone saw to dismember him.”
Six years after being described as a “pariah” by president Joe Biden, the crown prince actually managed to sound more regretful about the murder of Khashoggi than his host as they sat in the White House.
In the Oval Office, Trump, irritated by a series of questions directed at the Epstein files rather than the one trillion-dollar inward investment pledged by the crown prince, turned his displeasure at ABC’s Bruce for asking “horrible, insubordinate questions.”
“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking him questions like that.”
But suddenly, the dazzling hour in Sharm El-Sheikh, when a hastily assembled squadron of world leaders gathered in a line like obedient school prefects as Trump announced peace in the Middle East seemed longer than a month ago. As Trump sat against the gold-emblazoned fireplace and told an underwhelmed MBS that the price of gas in the Midwest might soon drop to two bucks a gallon, the tension running beneath the day underlined that sense that the storyteller no longer has full control of the narrative. Other voices – female, mainly – are breaking through. Soon, the Epstein release Bill will reach his desk.
Meanwhile, the guests dressed in their best for high dinner in the White House on Tuesday evening for a banquet that completed MBS’s return from the cold in Washington. A motley crew of distinguished guests that included Elon Musk, the first trillion-dollar salary man, and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, star of Saudi club Al Nasar, who will clearly do anything to forget the Republic of Ireland full-back line. Also there was Jeff Bezos, the Post’s owner who six years ago attended a memorial for the slain Jamal Khashoggi outside the consulate in Istanbul.
