Former U.S. President Donald Trump has defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the powerful royal “knew nothing” about the killing — a position that directly contradicts U.S. intelligence findings.
Trump made the remarks during a meeting with the crown prince at the Oval Office on Tuesday, his first visit to Washington since 2018, months before Khashoggi was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“You’re mentioning somebody who was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman,” Trump said when asked about the killing. “Whether you liked him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
The former president dismissed the question as an attempt to embarrass his guest, saying: “He knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
Responding to the same question, Crown Prince bin Salman described Khashoggi’s murder as “painful” and “a huge mistake,” insisting that Saudi Arabia carried out the appropriate investigations.
“It’s really painful to hear anyone losing his life for no real purpose or not in a legal way,” he said. “It has been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of investigation and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
A 2021 CIA assessment had concluded that the crown prince approved the operation that resulted in Khashoggi’s death.
The report stated the conclusion was based on the prince’s “control of decision-making in the Kingdom,” the involvement of his close aides, and his history of using aggressive measures against dissidents abroad.
Despite these findings, bin Salman has consistently denied authorising the killing.
Tuesday’s visit marks the crown prince’s first trip to the U.S. capital since the diplomatic crisis triggered by the assassination, which strained relations between Riyadh and Washington and attracted global condemnation.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and vocal critic of the Saudi government, was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October 2018.
While the U.S. intelligence community maintains that the operation could not have happened without the crown prince’s approval, Trump’s latest remarks appear aimed at reaffirming his political and diplomatic closeness to the Saudi leader.
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