Trump bragged to Woodward about protecting Saudi crown prince after Khashoggi killing: 'I saved his ass'

President Trump was seemingly happy the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi eventually faded from the spotlight. In fact, as Trump tells Bob Woodward, it was his doing.

Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in late 2018, seemingly on the order of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. His disappearance sparked unified outrage, including from both sides of the aisle in Congress; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), usually a staunch ally of Trump, led the charge to hold the crown prince responsible for Khashoggi's killing. But nearly two years later, not much has happened.

As Trump tells Woodward in the veteran journalist's forthcoming book Rage, that's exactly what he wanted to happen, Business Insider reports via a copy of the book. "I saved his ass," Trump reportedly said of bin Salman in 2018. "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

And in a conversation with Woodward in January of this year, Trump still declined to hold bin Salman accountable for the killing. "He will always say that he didn't do it," Trump told Woodward. So Woodward asked Trump if he believed bin Salman ordered the murder. "No, he says that he didn't do it," Trump continued. "He says very strongly that he didn't do it," before pivoting to discuss how Saudi Arabia spends billions of dollars on U.S. goods every year.

Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist based in the U.S. He wrote for The Washington Post, and often criticized the Saudi government. He went to the consulate in 2018 to get documents for his upcoming marriage, and was likely killed not long after he went inside.