Thread by @EricColumbus

Does Trump lack interest in Jamal Khashoggi's murder because the man's name brings back bad memories of the time he bought a fancy yacht from Khashoggi's uncle but had to sell it at a loss to a Saudi prince who became a big enemy of MbS? Let's dig in. 1/

Adnan Khashoggi, uncle of Jamal, was an international man of mystery -- a Saudi billionaire arms dealer who lived large and was entangled in all sorts of scandals, including Iran-Contra. 2/ nytimes.com/2017/06/06/wor…

Khashoggi also had a very, very nice boat, a 282-foot yacht built in 1980 with five decks, a disco, a movie theater, helipad, etc. – at the time the 8th biggest yacht in the world. 3/ yachtharbour.com/news/serial-ya…

The yacht made an appearance in the James Bond film “Never Say Never Again.” And Queen wrote a song about it! ("Khashoggi's Ship." It's not one of their best.) 4/

Khashoggi and Trump were birds of a feather in their vanity and lavish tastes. As a prank, Spy Magazine sent checks in increasingly miniscule sums to wealthy celebrities. The only two who cashed a 13-cent check? Khashoggi and Trump. 5/ splinternews.com/lets-remember-…

But Khashoggi's business empire began to crumble, and he had to sell the yacht. Trump swooped in, bought it at what appeared to be a bargain, and renamed it the "Trump Princess." He bragged about snookering Khashoggi. 6/ vanityfair.com/magazine/1989/…

Those of us who grew up in NYC in the 1980s and hated Trump before it became cool had to hear Trump brag about his damn yacht and how great it was and how great he was. Here’s Trump telling David Letterman all about it. 7/

But then Trump's own finances took a turn. Deeply in debt and trying to stave off personal bankruptcy, he ceded significant control of his empire to creditors. Humiliatingly, Trump agreed to economize by not using the yacht so much. 8/ nytimes.com/1990/08/16/bus…

Trump tried to put lipstick on a pig -- in his 1990 book "Trump: Surviving at the Top," he devoted a whole chapter to his wonderful yacht but insisted that he simply wasn't enamored by "trophies" anymore. This is from Michael Lewis' NYT review: 9/ nytimes.com/1990/09/02/boo…

By 1992, the banks had taken over Trump's yacht. 10/
nytimes.com/1992/03/19/bus…

Trump soon sold it at $10 million loss to another Saudi billionaire, Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal. He had bragged about buying Khashoggi's yacht at a steep discount, but now the chump was Trump. 11/ finance.yahoo.com/news/love-saud…

Trump, of course, bounced back. Khashoggi did not. He was jailed in Switzerland for three months and twice tried in the U.S. (and acquitted both times) for financial crimes. He lived comfortably but no longer was a high-flying deal maker. 12/

Fast forward: decades after selling the yacht, Trump is now president, best buddies with the Saudi royals, and he hears they killed a journalist named Khashoggi, who happens to be Adnan's nephew (but didn’t benefit from Adnan's wealth.) 13/ nytimes.com/2018/10/14/wor…

The Khashoggi name can't be a pleasant memory for Trump. So why get involved? Oh, and when Trump thinks of the damn yacht on which he lost $10 million, he probably recalls his 2015 Twitter feud with the guy who bought it, Prince Alwaleed. 14/ nytimes.com/politics/first…

Oh, and last year MbS locked up Alwaleed for three months as part of a shakedown of other royals who might threaten his regime. 15/
nbcnews.com/news/mideast/h…

So why would Trump lift a finger on behalf of Khashoggi? 16/

Would Trump really be this petty? Well, he just fired the Fed Chair because she was too short. 17/ washingtonpost.com/business/2018/…

Lest it seem that I'm being unfair to Trump, this is a *nicer* explanation than some or the others: that he loves dictators, he's reliant on Saudi investment in his business empire, he hates journalists, and he wants to protect his son's bromance with MbS. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 18/end