In Defending Mohammed bin Salman, Trump Sinks to a New Low

Hiding in plain sight

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November 21, 2025

Trump was furious that reporters had the audacity to question his wealthy “guest” with a bottomless wallet.

President Donald Trump meets with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(Vin McNamee/Getty Images)

October 2, 2018 Saudi dissident journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up the document. He never came out.

For more than two weeks, the Saudi government denied any knowledge of what happened to him. It was only after international attention intensified that a government spokesman announced that he had died in a “brawl” after resisting the arrest of officers intent on returning him to Saudi Arabia.

Then, on November 15, the kingdom's deputy prosecutor said that Khashoggi's murder was the result of “fraudulent operationTurkish government investigators came to slightly different conclusions, finding that a group of 15 Saudis arrived at the consulate, turned off security cameras and, when Khashoggi arrived, immediately strangled him and then dismembered his body.

In a trial that rights groups have called a sham, five people were sentenced to death for Khashoggi's murder, although their sentences were later commuted to long prison terms.

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A month after the assassination, the CIA concluded that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder Khashoggi. Then-President Donald Trump called the killings and the Saudis' attempt to deflect blame “the worst cover-up ever,” and then-Secretary of State Pompeo revoked the U.S. visas of 21 suspects.

It's all publicly available – just do a Google search. It's all easy to understand: the Saudis lured a dissident journalist into the consulate, a squad of gunmen flown in from the kingdom with the express purpose of neutralizing Khashoggi killed him and then dismembered his body, and no one in the highest echelons of the Saudi decision-making process was ever held accountable for this heinous act.

Seven years later, however, Trump has not only forgiven the Saudis, but appears to have come to the conclusion in his own warped, likely aging mind, that Khashoggi had sort of, sort of, when push came to shove, brought his own dismemberment. After all, he refused to toe the party line in his reporting on Saudi Arabia's kleptocratic, thuggish ruling family, so what did he expect?

Trump publicly announced his change of heart during a meeting with Mohammed bin Salman on November 18 in the Oval Office. At the meeting, ABC journalist Mary Bruce: shouted questions about the murder of Khashoggi. The President didn't like it. Instead of waiting for the Saudi crown prince to respond, Trump intervened, claiming (despite the CIA's 2018 findings) that bin Salman “knew nothing about it.”

“Don’t embarrass our guest by asking such a question,” Trump warned Bruce, as if pointing out that bin Salman had a beard stuck rather than asking him questions about a high-profile murder. Trump then accused ABC of being “fake news. One of the worst news in business.” He condemned Bruce for asking: “terrible, unruly and just plain terrible question.” He called her a “terrible person.” Later in the evening he demanded that the ABC would lose its broadcast license.

Amazingly, before condemning the American journalist, Trump praised bin Salman's “incredible human rights record.” Yes, Saudi Arabia's human rights record is “incredible,” but not in a positive way: Saudi Arabia is estimated to have 5,000 political prisonersand Human Rights Watch has estimated that 241 people executed in the first seven months of 2025, many of them are for political crimes. What's even more striking is that Trump continued to criticize Bruce. having said“You mention someone [Khashoggi] this was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like the gentleman you're talking about. Whether you like him or not, things happen.”

He spoke like a real gangster. You interrogate the boss and end up sleeping with the Pisces. Things happen, you know what I mean? You don't respect the Don, you'll pay for it. If you want to stay whole, learn to kiss the ring.. His face contorted into his signature scowl, Trump looked as if he hoped the journalists in front of him would suffer the same terrible fate as Jamal Khashoggi.

All of this is in keeping with Trump's increasingly old and barking attacks on journalists who are not as subservient as he would like. Remember the strange moment on Air Force One on November 14 when Trump responded to Bloomberg reporter Katherine Lucy questions about the Epstein files, shouting at her: “Quiet. Quiet pig— then shook her finger in front of her face.

Imagine what a field day the White House press corps, not to mention the GOP Congress and its ecosystem of far-right social media warriors, would have had if an aging and fallible Joe Biden made such a remark. However, in the age of Trump, when there is a new outrage every few minutes, this story has simply sunk into the mud.

Sometimes Trump makes outrageous statements just to blast white noise or poke whatever bear he wants to torment that day. Evidence of this is his furious demand on November 20, largely ignored by the US media, that Democratic lawmakers who drafted military personnel disobey illegal orders should be arrested, imprisoned and possibly executed.

But his recent crackdown on journalists and the concept of a free, inquisitive press does not fit that mold. In the broader context of his flattering meeting with bin Salman at the White House – a meeting dedicated to the conclusion of negotiations. Saudi purchases billions of dollars for high-quality American weapons and will likely make it easier for the Trump family to open a profitable business in the kingdom—Trump's caustic remarks about Khashoggi seemed to come entirely from the heart. When Bruce asked bin Salman the million-dollar question, Trump was furious that journalists had the audacity to question his wealthy “guest” with a bottomless wallet. In Trumplandia, such concern for human rights, not to mention the concept of freedom of the press, which gives journalists the ability to report corruption without breaking it into small pieces, is simply “insubordination.”

Every day I try to calculate the most un-American thing criminal Trump has done during his second tenure in the White House. There's some tough competition here, but his statements regarding the Khashoggi murder and his growing efforts to repeal the First Amendment certainly rank pretty darn high on this list.