The U.S., Saudi Arabia and Global Influence

"Well, there's certainly a tradition of that in American foreign policy. Sometimes presidents have decided to look the other way when they decided that, you know, vital national interests were at stake. And I'm afraid, particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia, we've been looking away for decades.

It's not always the case that presidents openly contradict their intelligence services. In doing so, and as usual, Trump brings his own special flair to this. But I would say both executive branch officials and members of Congress are likely to stick with Saudi Arabia, regardless of what happens".