Turkish officials are searching a forest for Mr Khashoggi's remains (Image: GETTY) The Express UK
Trump defends Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing
The de facto Saudi ruler was branded an outcast after the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Now, U.S.-Saudi relations are approaching a high point
November 18, 2025 The Washington Post
Trump dismisses MBS involvement in Khashoggi killing
By Michael Birnbaum, Natalie Allison and Susannah George
President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Washington Post opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi, saying “things happen” and that he did not hold the Saudi leader responsible for the 2018 murder despite a U.S. intelligence report assessing the opposite.
Trump’s dismissive language offered the highest-level confirmation yet that Mohammed will face few consequences for the killing, as the crown prince makes his first visit to Washington since Khashoggi was dismembered in a Saudi consulate in Turkey.
“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 [Mohammed] knew nothing about it,” Trump said in response to a question about Khashoggi. “And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
Mohammed arrived to a grand welcome from Trump at the White House on Tuesday, greeted at the South Portico with an Army honor guard of black horses and herald trumpeters, a remarkable turnaround for the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia who had been branded a pariah in 2018 after the CIA concluded that he had approved the killing of Khashoggi.
“Pariahs shouldn’t get to visit the White House,” said Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s director of press freedom initiatives. “It’s a mistake to reward the most abhorrent abuses of power.”
As early as his first term, Trump declared his desire to move past the killing and protect Mohammed from congressional demands for consequences.AI Icon
More recently, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has taken Saudi investments in his business projects, and Trump’s family business has announced numerous new business projects this year with Saudi partners who have ties to the royal family.
Trump said Tuesday that he has “nothing to do with the family business,” and the organization “does business all over.”
“They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually,” Trump said. “I’m sure they could do a lot.”
Trump’s embrace of the crown prince despite U.S. intelligence warnings of his complicity in Khashoggi’s murder recalled a similar moment in Trump’s first term, when he said he took Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vow over a U.S. intelligence assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 elections.
Trump offered a chummy welcome to Mohammed in the Oval Office on Tuesday, grasping his hand and wrist while mocking former president Joe Biden for offering a fist bump to the crown prince in 2022 because he did not want to extend the courtesy of a handshake.
“Trump doesn’t give a fist pump. I grab that hand. I don’t give a hell where that hand’s been,” Trump said, calling the crown prince “one of the most respected people in the world.”
Trump called the inquiry about Khashoggi from ABC News reporter Mary Bruce a “horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question,” adding that “I think the license should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong.”
His anger came minutes after he touted his and Mohammed’s openness and willingness to answer any and every question.
Mohammed denied responsibility for Khashoggi’s killing, saying that it was “painful to hear” about anyone losing his life for “no real purpose.”
“We’ve did all the right steps of investigation, etcetera, in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that,” he said. “And it’s painful, and it’s a huge mistake. And we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
Later Tuesday, Mohammed returned for an elaborate dinner with tech CEOs and other business and administration leaders.AI Icon
On Wednesday, there will be a U.S.-Saudi investment summit at the Kennedy Center, an effort to build business ties between Washington and Riyadh that goes beyond the investments announced during Trump’s May trip to the Middle East.
Among the private-sector executives gathered around candlelit tables Tuesday evening in the East Room was Elon Musk, who returned to the White House for the first time after a highly publicized falling-out with Trump this spring. The two men, who were close political allies for months as Trump returned to the office, have since resumed some communication, Trump’s advisers have told The Post.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who leads Trump’s family business along with his brother, Eric, was also at the dinner.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will speak at the Wednesday conference, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private agenda, as Saudi leaders seek deeper cooperation on AI technology and advanced chips.
After the Oval Office meeting, Khashoggi’s widow said she took issue with how Trump spoke of her murdered husband.
“I was disappointed with the description of my husband as a controversial and an unliked person,” said his widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, in an interview. “It looked like President Trump didn’t know anything about my husband. He was misinformed about his personality.”
Trump’s rhetoric “is as if saying, ‘Oh, this crime is okay.’ No, it’s not okay,” she said.
She said she was seeking Khashoggi’s remains from Saudi authorities to give him a proper burial.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN, the democracy organization Khashoggi founded, said the Trump administration’s warm welcome for Mohammed on Tuesday demonstrated how “leaders can be bought.”
“The murder of Khashoggi continues to be the most glaring example of [the crown prince’s] recklessness and impulsivity,” she said. “This is about American businesses allowing a ruthless, reckless, impulsive dictator to take big shares of their companies, to have big influence and control in American industries.”
Khashoggi, a sharp and persistent critic of Saudi leaders, was seeking official documents from the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul when he was killed there in 2018.
Mohammed’s arrival was filled with more pomp than for any world leader thus far in Trump’s second term. Trump treated Mohammed to a flyover of six F-15 and F-35 fighter jets that streaked across the Washington sky, as large American and Saudi flags fluttered from the black horses of an Army honor guard that walked across the South Lawn in procession. Trump escorted the crown prince into the White House, where the two leaders met in the Oval Office before a working lunch and then a grand dinner.
Trump said that his bond with Mohammed was so tight that the leaders call each other at all hours of the day, seeming to marvel at the crown prince’s willingness to take his phone calls no matter the time.
“We talk at night. We can talk, I can call him almost any time,” Trump said. “He goes, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ It’s like, the craziest times.”
The leaders were expected to sign deals ranging from weapons sales to agreements around artificial intelligence and rare earth minerals, according to White House officials. Mohammed said Tuesday that he would boost Saudi investments in the United States from a previously announced $600 billion to “almost $1 trillion.”
And Trump said he would continue to press the issue of Saudi normalization with Israel, an issue the Saudi leader said he valued, though he indicated Tuesday that his country still wasn’t ready to sign on. Saudi officials have said there must be a clear path to a Palestinian state as part of a deal.
Saudi Arabia is eager to deepen defense cooperation with the United States, a critical prerequisite for the kingdom’s ambitious plans to diversify its economy. Trump told reporters he would approve the sale of F-35s — some of the world’s most advanced aircraft — to the kingdom. He also said that Saudi Arabia would be designated a major non-NATO ally, a status that deepens security cooperation.
Some Republican lawmakers have expressed concern over the potential F-35 sale, fearful it could upend the military balance in the Middle East and anger Israel. There are also concerns that if transferred to Saudi Arabia, the F-35 technology could be easier for China to steal, as the kingdom has a close relationship with Beijing.
Mohammed was also carrying a letter from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator close to the kingdom’s leadership, a possible signal of a renewed attempt at diplomacy by Tehran. Shihabi did not have information on the content of the letter. Trump communicated with Iranian leadership through written letters ahead of launching talks over Iran’s nuclear program earlier this year.
Shihabi said that the fact U.S.-Saudi ties have endured numerous serious crises demonstrates that there is “a fundamental strategic logic to this relationship that has sustained it over 80 years.”
During the early years of his rise to power, Mohammed, 40, launched harsh crackdowns on domestic rivals and spearheaded ill-fated interventions in Yemen and Qatar that ultimately backfired.
Since then, Mohammed has tightened his grip on power within Saudi Arabia but has also attempted to cast himself as a peacemaker on the global stage, eager to cultivate the regional stability critical to his ambitious plans to transform the Saudi economy. Determined to open Saudi Arabia up to the outside world, Mohammed also sidelined powerful clerics in the country as he reversed a ban on female drivers and integrated more Saudi women into the workforce.
Before the killing of Khashoggi, Mohammed enjoyed glowing media coverage and had embarked on a tour of the United States, pitching investments in the kingdom to tech leaders, Hollywood producers and billionaire investors.
Though Biden vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” during his 2020 campaign, he eventually turned to Mohammed to help lower global oil prices after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and later worked closely with the Saudis on Gaza.
Cat Zakrzewski in Washington and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.
