A-5In Pardoning Saudi Arabia, Trump Gives Guidance to Autocrats(NYT) President Trump has long viewed foreign policy as a series of business deals, stripped of values and idealism. But his 633-word statement i showed the extent to which he believes that raw, mercantilist calculations should guide the United States’ decisions about the Middle East and the wider world. Mr. Trump made clear that he sees alliances as transactional, based on which foreign partners buy the most weapons. American jobs outweigh American values. And all countries act abhorrently, Mr. Trump’s words dealt a blow to Turkey, an American ally and fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that has demanded that Saudi Arabia be punished for killing Mr. Khashoggi last month inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. But Mr. Trump’s message was warmly welcomed by other American allies in the Middle East who value close ties with Washington but want to be left to rule as they wish. It was a succinct summation of Mr. Trump’s view of the Middle East, where his top priorities remain protecting Israel, fighting terrorism and pushing back against Iran, which he considers the engine behind instability in Lebanon and the wars in Yemen and Syria. Since Mr. Trump’s election, Saudi Arabia successfully pitched itself to Mr. Trump and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, as the Middle Eastern ally with both the standing and the cash to help with all these issues.