Donald Trump defended MBS in the killing of WaPo journalist Jamal Khashoggi : "Things happen"

Nov. 18, 2025

President Donald Trump (R-U.S.) on Tuesday said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman "knew nothing" about the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, despite findings by the U.S. Government that MBS, as the Crown Prince is known, that a security operation of such a nature would have been carried out "without the Crown Prince's authorization."

Further Reading :

• Trump defends Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing [The Washington Post]
  Nov. 18, 2025 — 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.
• US finds Saudi crown prince approved Khashoggi murder but does not sanction him [The Guardian]
  Feb. 26, 2021 — US intelligence agencies have concluded in a newly declassified intelligence report that Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the 2018 murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi – but Washington stopped short of targeting the future Saudi king with financial or other sanctions.
• The Wooing of Jared Kushner : How the Saudis Got a Friend in the White House [The New York Times]
  Dec. 8, 2018 — Senior American officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king.

Source Documents :

• 2021-02-11 Assessing the Saudi Government's Role in the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi : Office of the Director of National Intelligence
  This report is provided by the ODNI. We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Key Words :

• Jamal A. H. Khashoggi
• Jared Kushner
• Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
• The Washington Post