Trump Defends Saudi Crown Prince Over Khashoggi Killing. "Things Happen."

President Donald Trump and Crown Prince and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday in the Oval Office. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

by Rod Williams, Nov. 18, 2025- As reported in the Washington Post today, President Trump 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.

The Post article says, "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."

Mohammed was in Washington for a meeting with Trump and received a grand welcome from Trump at the White House, greeted at the South Portico with an honor guard of black horses and herald trumpeters. 

“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, Trump said of Khashho. 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.” Trump called the crown prince “one of the most respected people in the world.”

There is a lot about Trump that disgusts me, but this seems to encapsulate his lack of human decency. I accept that unless nations are at war, they must be civil and have relations. The US had friendly relations with Nazi Germany up until we did not. American presidents have had civil meetings with the worst dictators of the world. It is sometimes a necessity. We need to act diplomatically, even with mass murderers at times. One does not have to roll out the red carpet for them and have lavish ceremonies honoring them, however. One can be civil and discuss issues of mutual interest without excusing the inexcusable.

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