US President Donald Trump has demonstrated a willingness to cooperate with authoritarian leaders, hosting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House recently and privately offering support for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal crackdown on drugs.
He has been reluctant to criticise Russian President Vladimir Putin and also defended Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate last year.
Now, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power for 34 years, may be the latest strongman to be courted by the US president.
