There are many adjectives one can use to categorize Tuesday’s statement from President Trump strenuously defending the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Take your pick: disturbing, inaccurate, pathetic, false, outrageous, terrifying, idiotic. I, however, would go with “weak,” for it exposes Trump as a desperate man all too willing to bow at the altar of the Saudi royal family.

Evidently there is no crime Riyadh can commit that is heinous enough for Trump to condemn. Murdering a Washington Post columnist in the Saudi consulate and chopping his body into pieces? Don’t worry about it, golden boy Mohammed bin Salman can be excused. Destroying an entire country by targeting its food storage facilities, grain warehouses, residential neighborhoods, and ports, thereby leaving two-thirds of Yemenis on the brink of starvation? No matter: at least the U.S. will be making billions of dollars in defense contracts and keeping oil prices stable.