But in more than two years in the Oval Office, the president has demonstrated an unmistakable pattern: He tends to believe what strongmen say. In the case of Russia, Mr. Putin’s denials of election meddling fit with Mr. Trump’s claims that the investigations into whether his campaign conspired with Russia were nothing more than a hoax. After investing heavily in a diplomatic relationship with Saudi Arabia, it worked for Mr. Trump to accept the denials by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of any role in Mr. Khashoggi’s killing. Mr. Trump has lamented the “stupidity” of an American system that allows asylum seekers to have their day in court even as he has lauded the Chinese for being able to simply put drug dealers to death with minimal fuss. In China, he noted this month, a drug dealer gets “a thing called the death penalty.”

Source: New York Times March 01, 2019 01:55 UTC