President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of his nation, on Tuesday brushed off questions about bin Salman’s involvement in the 2018 killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“Things happen,” Trump said when asked about Khashoggi’s killing by Mary Bruce of ABC News, as he sat next to bin Salman in the Oval Office.
Khashoggi, who was a critic of the regime, was also a U.S. resident.
Trump called the ABC News reporter “fake news” after she asked about Khashoggi, about claims by families of 9/11 victims that Saudi Arabia bankrolled the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and about the propriety of Trump’s business investing in Saudi Arabia.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump said of Khashoggi.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen,” Trump said.
Referring to bin Salman, Trump said, “But he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”
“You don’t have to embarrass our guests by asking a question,” Trump said.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) speaks during a bilateral meeting with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia (L) in the Oval Office of the White House on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
Bin Salman has denied ordering Khashoggi’s killing.
But in February 2021, a month after then-President Joe Biden took office, the United States’ director of national intelligence released a report that said bin Salman approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi.
On Tuesday, bin Salman said, “You know, I feel painful about, you know, families of 9/11 in America. But, you know, we have to focus on reality.”
“Reality based in CIA documents, and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event, for one main purpose, is to destroy this [relationship], to destroy the American-Saudi relation,” bin Salman said.
“It’s really painful to hear …. anyone that been losing his life for you know, no real purpose or … not in a legal way,” bin Salman said, referring to Khashoggi.
“And it’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia,” the prince said. “We did all the right steps of investigation … in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it’s painful, and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this still doesn’t happen.”
Khashoggi’s widow, in a social media post directed at Trump before the meeting with bin Salman, wrote, “The murder of my husband has caused me to lose everything. There is unfinished business that remains including: the recovery of my husband’s body & my rightful compensation as his widow.”
“Much like the families in Israel, I would like to recover the remains of my husband so that I may have an appropriate religious burial ceremony,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi wrote in the post on X. “And much like the 9-11 families, I am seeking financial compensation for the murder of my husband.”
Hanan Khashoggi separately told CNN in an interview that “it is very painful for me” to see Trump welcome bin Salman to the White House.
The prince’s visit is his first to the United States since Khashoggi was killed.
