When President Donald Trump defended Saudi Arabia's crown prince this week over the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, he did more than just stir renewed accusations from critics of an affinity toward strongmen.

Trump's remarks, which contradicted U.S. intelligence findings, threw into stark relief just how far his administration has shifted away from the traditional U.S. support for human rights globally.

Nearly all recent U.S. administrations have worked with leaders with poor human rights records in order to advance U.S. interests.

But more than any recent occupant of the White House, Trump has not only praised prominent autocratic rulers, from Saudi Arabia and Hungary to China and El Salvador, but has shown little interest in reining them in, instead taking a more transactional approach.

Just how much U.S. human rights policy has changed under Trump was crystallized in the Oval Office on Tuesday when he denied that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played any role in the murder of Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership, despite U.S. intelligence assessing the opposite.

"Trump has ignored some of the most fundamental principles underpinning U.S. relations with the world," said Brett Bruen, a former foreign policy adviser in the Obama administration and now head of the Global Situation Room consultancy. "His words and actions give a green light to strongmen to do whatever they want."

Trump has focused this week instead on helping Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler rehabilitate his global image, giving him red-carpet treatment at the White House, touting burgeoning economic and security ties with the world's biggest oil exporter, and bringing him together with top U.S. CEOs.

That has jibed with the U.S.........

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