Elections & Politics Brief #201 | Nicholas Gordon | December 15, 2025
Summary
If you were new to President Trump’s Oval Office press conferences with world leaders, you might have found his meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on Tuesday, November 18, to be an astonishingly low moment for a U.S President. As though determined to debase himself and weaken U.S. credibility, Trump dismissed U.S. intelligence findings linking the crown prince to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, while savagely attacking the reporter who asked about it. And, per usual, Trump went out of his way to denigrate past presidents and brag about himself ad nauseum.
The moment was grim, and all too familiar. Time and again, Trump subjects his Oval Office guests to degrading behavior—from ambushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to presenting false claims of “white genocide” to the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The pattern makes a mockery of the office and undermines the American people. It’s beyond time for Republican leaders to show respect for the citizens they serve by taking a stand against Trump’s Oval Office depravity.
Analysis
Last February, President Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an Oval Office meeting which quickly soured, setting the tone for the egregious encounters that followed. Zelenskyy, visiting with the aim of forging a minerals deal that would help ensure further U.S. support as he defends his country against the ongoing Russian war, instead found himself ambushed by Trump and Vice President JD Vance. In their attack on the leader of a U.S. ally, Trump and Vance accused Zelenskyy of failing to show proper gratitude for U.S. aid. The American leaders then took turns berating and humiliating Zelenskyy, calling him disrespectful and pointing out that Ukraine was losing soldiers on the battlefield. This dismal exchange came on the heels of Trump wrongly accusing Ukraine of starting the war, when in fact Russia invaded Ukraine more than three years ago. After being tossed from the Oval Office and having his subsequent events in Washington canceled, Zelenskyy showed grace and diplomacy, thanking both the administration and the American people.
In May, Trump ambushed President Ramaphosa with false claims of “white genocide” and “land seizures” during another disastrous meeting that rivaled the indignity of Trump’s ambush of Zelenskyy. Deeply misinformed by debunked race-based conspiracy theories, Trump played a video showing rows of white crosses lining a rural road, and claimed, “These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers.” But Trump was dead wrong. The crosses do not mark graves. The clip depicted a protest against the murder of a white farming couple in 2020.
“Have they told you where that is Mr. President?” Ramaphosa asked calmly. “I’d like to know where that is, because this I’ve never seen.” Trump responded, wrongly, “These people are officials, and they’re saying ‘kill the white farmer and take his land.’”—and brandished a copy of a random blog post he asserted was about “white farmers being burned.” The image on the blog post was in fact from the Democratic Republic of Congo, not South Africa.
Ramaphosa was praised for his composure and diplomatic skill in handling Trump’s bullying and false allegations, while Trump was widely denounced for his bigotry and ignorance. “There is criminal activity in our country,” Ramaphosa explained, expertly modulating his tone and content to meet the comprehension level of his deluded interlocutor. “People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity, are not only white people. The majority of them are black people,” Ramaphosa said, in a statement backed by facts.
Following the meeting, Rep. Yvette Clarke wrote on social media, “The president’s ignorance of history and reality is an embarrassment to our nation. South Africa’s Black population was subjugated, segregated, and murdered for decades. Trump and Musk can lie and cry all day, but their hoax has no comparison to the brutality of Apartheid.”
And yet, it gets worse
Sitting with the crown prince—a man with a growing list of human rights abuses—Trump sunk to new lows. When ABC News reporter Mary Bruce asked MBS about his alleged involvementin the murder of Khashoggi in 2018, Trump savagely attacked Bruce. “You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter,” Trump said. “Your crappy company, your news is so fake we should look at that. The way you ask a question with the anger and meanness is terrible. You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter.” Accusing Bruce of “insubordination,” Trump stated that the crown prince knew nothing about Khashoggi’s murder. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen,” said Trump, who has a history of trashing U.S. intelligence conclusions in favor of tyrants.
If undermining the U.S. intelligence community and the free press, two pillars of democracy, were not enough, Trump then took his customary potshots at his presidential predecessors and boasted about his voting numbers, all of which comments were utterly out of context. After claiming that “Obama treated Saudi very badly,” and “Biden didn’t have any idea where the hell the country was,” Trump turned to his guest and asked, “Does Trump blow them all away?” Smiling sheepishly, the crown prince replied, “We’ve worked with all presidents.” Later, apropos of nothing, Trump stated, “I won Indiana by record numbers. I won many states by record numbers.” While the crown prince’s smile oozed embarrassment throughout the meeting, it’s unclear whether he was smiling because he got away with murder or because of Trump’s vulgarity. Perhaps both.
Conclusion
Americans want their president to do well. We want Trump to honor the democratic principles that the world looks to United States to uphold. But by constantly attacking our allies, reporters, intelligence agencies, and past U.S. presidents—often while siding with dictators and serial human rights’ abusers—Trump undermines and disrespects the very people he was elected to serve and protect. Ironically, for a president obsessed with trying to project strength and emulate a strongman, Trump personifies weakness and insecurity in his Oval Office behavior. Republican leaders who have been complicit in Trump’s act for a decade by kowtowing to his demonstrable falsehoods and abject racism need to hold him accountable to a higher standard of leadership if we hope to restore U.S. credibility.
Engagement Resources:
- org
- A nonprofitthat “aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics by providing original research on misinformation and hoaxes.”
- The Hoover Institute
- A public policy think tank that “seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity, while securing and safeguarding peace for America and all mankind”
- The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
- An independent, nonprofit foundation “dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.”