President Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House on Tuesday with fighter jets flying overhead, black horses processing across the South Lawn, and cannons firing in salute. It was the kind of welcome typically reserved for heads of state, which MBS technically isn’t. But Trump had promised he wasn’t just meeting with Saudi Arabia—he was “honoring” them. And he delivered on that promise, rolling out the red carpet for a man U.S. intelligence agencies concluded ordered the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
When ABC News reporter Mary Bruce asked about that murder during the Oval Office meeting, Trump immediately jumped to MBS’s defense.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump said, sitting right next to the Saudi crown prince. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but [MBS] knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”
Things happen.
A U.S. resident and journalist gets lured into a consulate, murdered, and dismembered by a 15-person Saudi hit squad, and the president’s response is basically a shrug. Things happen. Oops.
Later in the meeting, after Bruce asked about the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, Trump circled back to her Khashoggi question and called it “a horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question.” He told her she was “a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”
Right. Wouldn’t want to make a murderer feel awkward at his party.
Here’s what we know, despite Trump’s insistence otherwise: In November 2018, the CIA concluded that MBS personally ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. Then, in February 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence put out a report that said, flat out: MBS approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi.
The intelligence community didn’t hedge. They pointed to MBS’s control over Saudi decision-making, the involvement of his personal security detail, and his history of using violence against dissidents. The CIA had evidence of MBS texting back and forth with the guy who ran the kill team. There were audio recordings from Turkish intelligence of Khashoggi’s final moments. His body was cut apart and has never been found.
But sure, MBS “knew nothing about it.”
Trump kept going. He praised MBS’s human rights record as “incredible,” and called him “an extremely respected man” and a longtime friend. Never mind that the State Department’s own 2024 report on Saudi Arabia lists ongoing problems with arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture, restrictions on free speech, and restrictions on religious freedom. Just incredible work on human rights.
MBS gave what might be the most half-assed response imaginable. He didn’t even say Khashoggi’s name. Just referred to him as “the journalist” and said, “It’s really painful to hear anyone losing his life for no real purpose.” Called it “painful” and “a huge mistake.” Cool. Very convincing.
Now let’s talk about the money, because of course there’s money involved.
Right there in the Oval Office, MBS told Trump that Saudi Arabia would bump its planned $600 billion investment in the United States up to nearly $1 trillion. Trump was giddy. They announced what they’re calling the largest defense deal in U.S. history, including the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
And about those Trump family business interests? The Trump Organization has projects going up in both Jeddah and Riyadh. Literally the day before MBS showed up in Washington, they announced another project with a Saudi-linked developer in the Maldives. The New York Times reported that Trump’s family is involved in a development inside Diriyah, a massive $63 billion Saudi government project.
The developer behind a bunch of these Gulf projects, Dar Global, handed the Trump Organization about $22 million in licensing fees last year. Dar Global’s parent company has close ties to the Saudi government and royal family. And let’s not forget that after Jared Kushner left the White House, a Saudi fund overseen by MBS gave him $2 billion for his private equity firm.
Trump’s response to questions about conflicts of interest? “What my family does is fine. They do business all over. They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually.”
That’s just a lie. The Trump family is making millions off Saudi connections, and everyone can see it.
Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, shared a statement directed at Trump before the meeting: “The murder of my husband has caused me to lose everything.” She wrote that she wants her husband’s body back so she can give him a proper burial. She wants compensation for his murder, comparing herself to 9/11 families and families of Israeli hostages.
Trump couldn’t be bothered. He was busy telling people what a great guy MBS is.
This is American foreign policy now. The president dismisses a murdered journalist as “controversial” and says “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman.” He waves away his own intelligence agencies’ findings when there are deals to be made. His family rakes in tens of millions from entities tied to a foreign government, then he turns around and sells that government weapons while praising their human rights record.
The corruption is sitting right there in plain sight. Total moral rot.
Back in 2018, after Khashoggi’s murder, Trump put out a statement saying that “maybe [MBS] did and maybe he didn’t” know about it, but “our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” At least back then, he maintained some thin veneer of uncertainty. Now he’s just declaring that MBS knew nothing and everyone should drop it. Don’t embarrass our guest, he says.
Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, to get paperwork for his wedding. He never walked out. Fifteen Saudi agents killed him, cut up his body, and got rid of it in some way we still don’t know. He was 59. He’d been living in Virginia after leaving Saudi Arabia in 2017 because he criticized MBS and the crackdown on dissent. His columns in The Washington Post went after the regime regularly.
So they killed him for it.
And on Tuesday, the president of the United States scolded a reporter for being rude enough to mention it.
Trump spent Tuesday praising MBS’s human rights record, announcing weapons deals worth billions, and scolding a reporter for being rude enough to ask about a murdered journalist. He stood in the Oval Office and told the American people that the man his own intelligence agencies say ordered Khashoggi’s murder “knew nothing about it.” And why wouldn’t he? The Trump Organization is making millions off Saudi-connected developers while Trump is president.
The message here isn’t complicated: If you’ve got enough money, you can get away with murder. Literally. You can have a journalist killed and dismembered, and the president of the United States will not only give you a pass but throw you a party with flyovers and cannons. He’ll sell you fighter jets. He’ll praise your human rights record. And if anyone asks uncomfortable questions, he’ll attack them for embarrassing you.
