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Why is Donald Trump so eager to buy Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s cover story about a “rogue operation” to murder Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post columnist and dissident critic? Well, it could be, as Trump said, that he’d rather prioritize the $110 billion in hoped-for arms deals with the kingdom than stick up for human rights. Another reason could be the fact that Trump, despite his tweet, has a lot of personal business deals with wealthy Saudis.
Trump and Uncle Adnan: Ironically enough, one of the Saudis who Trump did business with back in the 1980s was Adnan Khashoggi, the uncle of Jamal. Adnan was a high-profile financier who dabbled in arms dealing and got tangled up in the Iran-Contra scandal. When his finances took a hit, Khashoggi held a fire sale and pawned off his prized yacht, the Nabila, to Trump for somewhere between $25-30 million. “Not many people live a life like Khashoggi but I’m coming damn close,” Trump told Newsweek in 1987.