What a comic opera absurdity. Did President Trump ask King Salman where the churches and synagogues and Hindu temples were in Saudi Arabia? Did he ask the sinister little king how his exhibition of tolerance and coexistence among different faiths squared with the Saudi Grand Mufti’s calling for the demolition of churches? Did he ask Salman about Muhammad’s order as recorded in a hadith: “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.” (Sahih Muslim 19.4366)? Did he request, as a foreign head of state, the honor of being given a tour of Mecca, including a look inside the Ka’aba, and then ask how the fact that he is not allowed to enter Mecca since he is not a Muslim squared with this claim of “tolerance and coexistence among different faiths”?

Of course he didn’t. He went along with the charade, as Bush and Obama would have done. Who knows, he may yet praise Islam’s glorious tradition of tolerance while he is still in the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places. It looks as if he has fallen headlong into the swamp, and the hungry gators have gathered around for a good meal.