Trump on Jamal Khashoggi Murder: “Things Happen”

Somewhere on the short list of things you’d rather not see the President of the United States doing on any given Tuesday afternoon: Hosting an autocrat in the Oval Office and shaming a member of the media for asking his opinion on the cold-blooded murder of a U.S. resident and journalist on the orders of that very guest. And yet Trump managed to do both of those things simultaneously today as he hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, marking the de facto Saudi Arabia leader’s first physical return to the U.S. since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. United States intelligence agencies later concluded that the assassins who killed Khashoggi were acting with the Crown Prince’s approval, yet the Biden White House failed to take any direct action against the Crown Prince or the kingdom beyond token sanctions of a handful of low-level individuals, worrying about losing access and strategic control in the region. Trump, meanwhile, is perfectly happy to simply defend the Saudi prince personally and effectively endorse the death, saying the following:

“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,” Trump said in reference to Khashoggi, a U.S. legal resident of Virginia who wrote frequently for the Washington Post. Meanwhile, in response to a journalist asking Prince Mohammed about Khashoggi’s death, Trump interrupted and went on to say “He knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking something like that.”

Suffice to say, that the President of the United States would be more concerned by the embarrassment of a despot rather than by the murder and dismemberment of a family man and U.S. resident—while callously taking the time to say that “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman”—tells you quite neatly where his priorities are on this subject. Or as with any other subject, Trump will always find a way to land on whichever side is most able to personally enrich him or members of his family.

Khashoggi had been a frequent critic of that same Saudi government before he disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He never emerged, being killed at that location by Saudi operatives before gruesomely being dismembered with a bone saw, the audio of which would become one of the most haunting recordings of the era. Saudi officials would eventually settle on the story that the killing was the result of a botched abduction operation to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, as if this would have been any better. The Saudi government ultimately imprisoned eight people after secretive trials, these individuals collectively taking the fall for the high-profile slaying. Meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, Prince Mohammed referred to the killing as “painful” and “a huge mistake,” saying that the kingdom “did all the right steps” in its subsequent investigation—which, might we again remind you, U.S. intelligence concluded was ordered by none other than himself.