Editorial: Inconvenient facts won't get in way

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally. Photo / AP

Editorial

These days, in the populist era, politicians - if they are bold and shameless enough - will make statements they know will be contradicted.

Take US President Donald Trump's denial to reporters that he made a US$1 million bet (for charity) that Senator Elizabeth Warren could not prove her native American heritage. Yet he was on tape offering the bet at a political rally on July 5 in Montana. Technology proved it. Case closed.

Trump, however, subsequently eased his way out of the situation with a "joke" about only agreeing to it if he could test her himself, which he said he wouldn't enjoy, and went back to calling her Pocahontas. Everyone moved on.

The reason the facts didn't matter to Trump in this case is that he is usually only speaking to the 38-45 per cent of Americans who back him in a fractured, polarised political system. Trump made the facts irrelevant by playing on the tribalism of the moment. He was jabbing at a key opponent and he knew his base would lap it up.

His methods - playing loose with basic facts - have become so common they lack any impact. If the intended target audience does not care, or believes Trump over facts, the power of facts to hurt the President is greatly diminished.

Trump's control of his base is what keeps congressional Republicans in line. Republicans - at least until the Midterms next month - control the presidency and both houses of Congress.

Three weeks ago, the New York Times published a lengthy investigation into Trump's business dealings that has had no political impact on the president at all.

Trump's supporters - who have long considered themselves ignored by the urban power elites - appreciate his laser focus on them.

Trump was almost certainly channelling his base when he spoke bluntly about not wanting to put US arms sales to Saudi Arabia at risk over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He spelled out that the US would be harming itself. He added that Khashoggi was effectively not one of them: A resident, not a US citizen.

The entire Saudi crisis up until Saturday's confirmation of Khashoggi's death has been a transparent dance where Trump has tried to get Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman safely off the floor. The US and European powers don't want their relationships with the Saudis to be harmed. Trump's own business ties with the Saudis date to at least the 1990s.

Trump repeated the shaky official Saudi denials to quarantine its rulers from blame. Khashoggi's continued disappearance, news of an audio tape, flight logs of agents flying to Turkey, evidence said to be found at the Istanbul consulate, cleaners and newly applied paint at the site and links between suspects and the prince pointed the other way.

Now, any responsibility will be kept away from royalty via an investigation run by the Saudis themselves. They have called it a quarrel that got out of hand and arrested 18. Inconvenient facts won't get in the way.