Honor comes with wealth. The only exception is pedophilia.
Robert Reich - Nov 19
Friends,
When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) arrived at the White House yesterday, he was met by a Marine band, officers on horseback carrying the Saudi and American flags, and fighter jets flying over the White House in a V formation.
It was far more pomp than visiting foreign leaders normally receive.
What had the crown prince done to merit such honor from the United States?
He has helped broker a tentative peace between Hamas and Israel. But so have Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
The real reason for the honor is that MBS and the Saudis are doing lots of business with Trump’s family — and this visit is part of the payoff.
It’s MBS’s effort to rehabilitate his reputation after Saudi operatives murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and chopped his body into pieces with a bone saw — a killing that U.S. intelligence determined was greenlit by MBS.
But in yesterday’s joint Oval Office appearance — freighted with flattery between Trump and MBS — Trump brushed off a reporter’s question about MBS and the murder.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen,” said Trump, referring to Khashoggi.
Things happen?
When the reporter then asked MBS about the finding by U.S. intelligence, Trump quickly interjected. “He knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking something like that.”
All of which raises once again the question of who is honored in this upside-down Trump era, and who is subject to shame and disgrace.
Larry Summers, who had been secretary of the treasury under Bill Clinton and a high official in the Obama White House, said Monday that he was “deeply ashamed” about his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and therefore would be “stepping back” from all public engagements as he works to “rebuild trust and repair relationships.”
New details of Summers’s relationship with Epstein emerged last week when a House committee released emails showing years of personal correspondence between the two men, including Summers’s sexist comments and his seeking Epstein’s romantic advice.
Consultants who specialize in rehabilitating the reputations of public figures often advise that they begin with a full public apology, along with a period in which they “step back” out of the limelight.
What separates consultant-driven contrition from the real thing depends on whether it involves any real personal sacrifice.
It’s not clear what Summers will have to sacrifice. Apparently he’ll continue in his role of University Professor at Harvard, the highest and most honorable rank a faculty member there can achieve. (Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on Harvard to sever ties with Summers to hold him accountable for his close friendship with Epstein.)
The same question — whom we honor, whom we shame, and who is genuinely contrite — is also relevant to Eric Adams’s final weeks as mayor of New York City, during which the pace of his foreign travel is increasing even as the city foots much of the bill. No contrition from the mayor — although he was indicted on corruption charges that focused, in part, on improper foreign travel.
And then comes Elon Musk, who — despite his reign of terror in the federal government, including a stack of court rulings finding what he did to be illegal, to say nothing of his blowup with Trump — will preside this weekend at a festive DOGE reunion in Austin at a high-end hotel where Musk often has a suite.
In this era of Trump, America’s moral authority — its capacity to separate right from wrong, and to pride itself doing (or at least trying to do) what is honorable — seems to have vanished, along with the norms on which that authority has been based.
Under Trump, the only normative rule is to gain as much power and money as possible. Power and wealth are honored, even if the honoree has greenlit a brutal murder.
The only exception appears to be pedophilia. Or close association with a pedophile, for which an earnest expression of contrition may be sufficient to get back on the honor track.
High on the list of things America must do when this period of moral squalor is behind us will be to restore real honor and real shame.
how we will ever come out of this national shame, given what we are seeing now... the pure evil of unbridled greed, money, power, sickness and cruelty is on full display. And he keeps saying the American people gave him the "mandate" to do what he is doing.
With smart thinking, hard work, and electing folks with integrity, not connections
Posted by Sia on November 19, 2025, 4:59 am, in reply to "Hard to imagine..."
Also, admitting collective stupidity in allowing such evil incarnate to walk the halls of Congress and worse to occupy the White House. TWICE!
America has to lose our arrogance and eat a boatload of humble pie for breakfast, lunch, and supper, starting now!
the obscenity of it all... is going to be awfully hard to swallow and keep from barfing it back up!
Makes me think of having to prep for a colonoscopy... swallowing all that nasty solution in a short period of time, when you feel like you are going to barf it all back up before it can do the job of cleaning you out. Why can't we just barf dt out and flush him down the toilet?!
Yes, we need a national emetic
Posted by greenman on November 19, 2025, 12:28 pm, in reply to "Just...." Valued Poster
Not only Trump but his MAGA gang need to be removed from the body politic.. RESIST!
ROFLMAO! That just snapped my funny bone!
Posted by Sia on November 19, 2025, 10:53 am, in reply to "Just...."
I wish we could just barf and flush that disgusting germ outa the white house!
Speaking of the White House, did you see the closeups of the cheap gold plate all over the Oval office in those cringy pix of dt with the murderous crow prince MBS?
Why didn't the Saudis do to their royalty what Britain did to theirs for such disgraceful behavior?
LOL again. Obviously I'd meant crown prince but a typo of "crow" seems
more fitting. No offense to crows, who are magnificent birds, but do also eat rotting leftovers when available. That is the trait MBS fits, albeit by accident.
on November 19, 2025, 4:24 am
