For the first two years of his presidency, Trump's performance was seen through the filter of his come-from-behind win in 2016. He had a following that had brought him victory against the odds. He seemed untouchable because he wasn't being as scrutinised by Congress as he could have been.
Now opponents are emboldened. With the Republicans losing control of the House, any controversial Trump action could be investigated. The Daily Beast reported that the incoming House intelligence committee is hiring money laundering and accounting experts.
Trump has been under fire after the death of US resident Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA's assessment is that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman most likely ordered the killing. Trump dismissed that assessment as "feelings".
He tried to put the issue to bed by arguing that Saudi Arabia holds the economic cards in its relationship with Washington and the US must do all it can to keep in the kingdom's good books. "Do people really want me to give up hundreds of thousands of jobs?" he replied when asked if the Saudis should get a tougher punishment. "Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place".
Trump's forelock-tugging towards the Saudi royals drew disgust from the Republican head of the Senate foreign relations committee. "I never thought I'd see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia," Senator Bob Corker tweeted.
Saudi Arabia denies the Crown Prince was involved. The Saudi Government has charged 11 Saudis with killing Khashoggi. It claims they were told to bring the journalist back to the kingdom from Turkey.
Trump talked up the Saudis' clout with oil and investments in the US. The US gets about 11 per cent of its imported oil from Saudi Arabia. Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US are the world's biggest oil producers. Although Trump mentioned US$110 billion in military purchases, AP reports that the Pentagon has agreement for US$14.5 billion. Most of that is for a missile defence system.
There's nothing new in US administrations dealing with unsavoury Middle Eastern allies. Whereas the Obama Administration at least juggled the competing interests in the region and tried to reduce tensions through the nuclear pact with Iran, the Trump Administration clearly favours Riyadh in opposition to Tehran. Harvard Professor Stephen Walt tweeted: "Trump claims Saudi Arabia is 'a great ally in our very important fight against Iran.' As usual, he has it backwards. In fact, it is our Mideast allies who are using the US in THEIR struggle w/Tehran. And Trump, Kushner, & Pompeo don't even realise they're being conned."
The New York Times reported that the Prince had been overseeing talks to get the US to sell designs for nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia, but there were concerns the aim was to build a bomb. That's exactly what Iran was accused of doing.
Pressure is now building for Congress to cut back on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the US role in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Germany, Denmark and Finland have said that they would halt future arms exports to Saudi Arabia. Germany is also stopping sales that had already been approved.
The incoming chairman of the House intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, told the Washington Post that Democrats will examine US intelligence in the Khashoggi case and take a wider look at US relations with the Saudis.
With US Administration support, Saudi Arabia is taking a business-as-usual approach. The Prince is taking his first trip abroad since Khashoggi's killing - to the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. But with Trump under new scrutiny at home from an opposition with new power, it's not yet business as usual.
