US president also claims Mohammed bin Salman ‘knew nothing’ about murder of journalist
Donald Trump has shrugged off the Saudi regime’s 2018 murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the journalist was “extremely controversial” and unpopular.
The US president made the remarks at the White House on Tuesday while welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time since Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment in Istanbul by Saudi state operatives.
US intelligence agencies later made a formal assessment that the prince had ordered the killing, but Trump insisted on Tuesday that “he knew nothing about it”.
Trump castigated the ABC News journalist who asked a question about the murder, suggesting that ABC should lose its broadcasting licence, and describing Khashoggi as “extremely controversial”.
