Frenemies redux

😳A sexual predator and a murderer walk into the Oval Office...

Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet (literally), ordered a flyover of F-35s (literally) and feted a murderer (literally) at the White House earlier this week.

The “gold” flourishes all over the walls were the only thing that were not actually literal.

Mohammed bin Salman no doubt felt at home in an Oval Office that now looks like it was decorated by the same design firm that decorates royal palaces in Saudi Arabia. (Although something tells me their designer uses real gold.)

Oval Office or Saudi royal palace, you be the judge!

Besides flagrantly flouting the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution and berating “insubordinate” female members of the press, the most shocking moment during the Saudi crown prince’s visit to the White House was when Trump said “things happen” when talking about that time the Saudi regime killed Jamal Khashoggi.

Things happened . . . that led to the murder and dismemberment with a bone saw of a journalist working for the Washington Post.

Trump framed it all in a very passive way: hey, some people disliked the guy, these things happen, don’t blame this prince-of-a-guy, don’t ask me, etc., etc.

Actually, the things that happened, according to U.S. intelligence agencies during the first Trump administration and a UN report, was that bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi — luring him to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, where he was killed, sawn apart and never seen again.

It was a little more active than “things happen.”

But Trump — ever the businessman — has important deals for himself and his family in Saudi Arabia and the surrounding region so mustn’t ruffle that affable prince’s feathers by letting some nasty reporter ask questions about a brutal state-sponsored murder.

I’ve done cartoons about Saudi Arabia and the crown prince for years, and was similarly frustrated with a weasely Joe Biden who tried to have it both ways with the blood-soaked prince.

But Biden’s squirming was nothing compared to Trump’s sycophancy.

And don’t get me started about the talk of a nuclear reactor for Saudi Arabia…