A US-based journalist and human rights defender was dismissed as someone “a lot of people didn’t like,” and the Saudi crown prince who US intelligence experts found had likely ordered the writer’s killing was applauded as “one of the most respected people in the world.”
That was President Donald Trump’s assessment of Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated in 2018, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday at a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House.
Trump and bin Salman met to discuss a range of topics, from a US sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to agreements on minerals and artificial intelligence.
Bin Salman also told the president he would increase Saudi investment in the US from $600 billion to $1 trillion.
The BBC reported that Trump “bask[ed]” in the $1 trillion pledge, telling the prince it was an “honor” to be his friend and saying the US “very much appreciate[s]” the investment.
“We’re doing numbers no one has ever done,” Trump said.
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ABC News reporter Mary Bruce asked Trump about his family’s business interests in Saudi Arabia and questioned whether the bilateral deals presented a conflict of interest, before pointedly asking bin Salman about the Central Intelligence Agency’s finding in 2021 that the prince had likely personally ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
“Your royal highness, the US intelligence concluded that you ordered the brutal murder of a journalist,” said Bruce. “Why should Americans trust you?”
Trump was visibly angered by the question and demanded to know what outlet Bruce was with before telling her ABC was “fake news” and calling her comment “horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question."
“He knew nothing about it,” said the president, contradicting the government’s findings.
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Khashoggi responded to Bruce, saying, “It’s really painful to hear anyone losing his life for no real purpose or not in a legal way.”
Trump, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, will “overlook the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to pad his pockets and boost the bottom line of the military industrial complex.”
Following Trump’s comments, Democrats on the US House Intelligence Committee posted a link to the federal report that detailed bin Salman’s involvement in the killing of Khashoggi.
US Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) called Trump’s warm welcome to bin Salman “outrageous and disgusting.”
“Tyrants around the world are celebrating,” said McGovern. “After all, why would they hesitate to kill dissidents outside of their borders if the Saudis are allowed to get away with it?”
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