{"id":144927,"date":"2025-11-21T07:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/144927\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T07:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:16:13","slug":"trump-and-saudi-crown-prince-bond-over-their-contempt-and-fear-of-a-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/144927\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Saudi crown prince bond over their contempt–and fear–of a free press."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In October of 2018, U.S.-based journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia\u2019s embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. The CIA concluded<\/a> that the assassination was carried out by Saudi operatives, on order of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The prince denied the accusations, although other U.S. intelligence agencies later made the same formal assessment. <\/p>\n

Tuesday, President Trump showered the Saudi leader with praise during his first invitation to the White House since the killing. \u201cWe\u2019ve been really good friends for a long period of time,\u201d said Trump. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been on the same side of every issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly. Their shared disdain \u2014 and fear \u2014 of a free press was evident, from downplaying the killing of Khashoggi to snapping at ABC News reporter Mary Bruce when she asked about his murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,\u201d Trump said, then he proceeded to debase a journalist who wasn\u2019t there to report on the event because he\u2019d been silenced, forever. Referring to Khashoggi, he said, \u201cA lot of people didn\u2019t like that gentleman that you\u2019re talking about. Whether you like him or didn\u2019t like him, things happen<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mohammed <\/p>\n

Mohammed bin Salman, left, and Jamal Khashoggi.<\/p>\n

(Associated Press \/ Tribune News Service)<\/p>\n

Fender-benders happen. Spilled milk happens. But the orchestrated assassination of a journalist by a regime that he covers is not one of those \u201cthings\u201d that just happen. It\u2019s an orchestrated hit meant to silence critics, control the narrative and bury whatever corruption, human rights abuses or malfeasance that a healthy free press is meant to expose.<\/p>\n

Bruce did what a competent reporter is supposed to do. She deviated from Tuesday\u2019s up-with-Saudi-Arabia! agenda to ask the hard questions of powerful men not used to being questioned about anything, let alone murder. The meeting was meant to highlight the oil-rich country\u2019s investment in the U.S. economy, and at Trump\u2019s prompting, Prince Mohammed said those investments could total $1 trillion. <\/p>\n

Prince Mohammed addressed the death of Khashoggi by saying his country hopes to do better in the future, whatever that means. \u201cIt\u2019s painful and it\u2019s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just in case the two men hadn\u2019t made clear how little they cared about the slain journalist, and how much they disdain the news media, Trump drove those points home when he referred to Bruce\u2019s query as \u201ca horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.\u201d He suggesting that ABC should lose its broadcasting license. <\/p>\n

Trump confirmed Tuesday that he intends to sell \u201ctop of the line\u201d F-35 stealth fighter jets to Riyadh. It\u2019s worth noting that the team of 15 Saudi agents allegedly involved in Khashoggi\u2019s murder flew to Istanbul on government aircraft. The reporter was lured to the Saudi embassy to pick up documents that were needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.<\/p>\n

The prince knew nothing about it, said Trump on Tuesday, despite the findings of a 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that cited <\/a>\u201cthe direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Mohammad bin Salman\u2019s protective detail.\u201d It concluded that it was \u201chighly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince\u2019s authorization.\u201d<\/p>\n

To no one\u2019s surprise, the Saudi government had tried to dodge the issue before claiming Khashoggi had been killed by rogue officials, insisting that the slaying and dismemberment was not premeditated. They offered no explanation of how a bonesaw just happened to be available inside the embassy.<\/p>\n

\"President <\/p>\n

President Trump shakes hands with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House in 2018. <\/p>\n

(MANDEL NGAN\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Five men were sentenced to death<\/a>, but one of Khashoggi\u2019s sons later announced that the family had forgiven the killers<\/a>, which, in accordance with Islamic law, spared them from execution. <\/p>\n

The president\u2019s castigation of ABC\u2019s Bruce was the second time in a week that he has ripped into a female journalist when she asked a \u201ctough\u201d question (i.e. anything Newsmax won\u2019t ask). Trump was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One last Friday when Bloomberg News\u2019 Catherine Lucey asked him follow-up question about the Epstein files. The president replied, \u201cQuiet. Quiet, piggy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s contempt for the press was clear, but so was something else he shares with the crown prince, Vladimir Putin and Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n: The president doesn\u2019t just hate the press. He fears it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October of 2018, U.S.-based journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia\u2019s embassy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[29978,88839,21138,88838,42,1981,32164,88841,88837,44331,43,88840,1009,3871,31596,40,38,41,39,627,27403],"class_list":["post-144927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bruce","tag-competent-reporter","tag-embassy","tag-free-press","tag-headlines","tag-investment","tag-istanbul","tag-journalist","tag-khashoggi","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-powerful-man","tag-president-trump","tag-prince","tag-question","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-tuesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}