The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has hit a cultural nerve in America. The sustained anger outstrips our response to the killing of 43 other journalists in 2018, Saudi Arabia's jailing of these dissidents, or the U.S.-supported Saudi invasion of Yemen that has created a humanitarian crisis that is affecting millions of people and getting worse.
American presidents have long made covert and uncomfortable moral trade-offs with repressive regimes in order to further American interests. Has President Trump simply exposed the moral ambiguity of America's approach to foreign policy? Or, has his transactional embrace of brutal and repressive leaders like Mohammad Bin Salman emboldened them to ignore the boundaries demanded by previous presidents?
Journalist Susan Glasser wonders if this is about anger with the "morally compromising, press-bashing, truth-denying essence of the Trump presidency."
What's driving your outrage? What's different about President Trump?
GUESTS:
- Mark Silk - Professor and Director of Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and staff blogger at Religion News Service (@directorsilk)
- Adam Davidson - Covers business, technology and economics for The New Yorker (@adamdavidson)
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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
