President Donald Trump bragged about protecting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from fallout over the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to Bob Woodward’s new book Rage. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post on Middle Eastern affairs, was dismembered with a bone saw in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in late 2018, a murder the U.S. intelligence community believes Saudi agents carried out on the orders of bin Salman. In the aftermath, Congress passed a resolution to block an $8 billion arms sale to the kingdom, but Trump vetoed it. Trump likewise stopped a resolution that would have rescinded U.S. support for a coalition in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia. Trump told Woodward, “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.” Trump also said he did not believe bin Salman orchestrated the murder, despite the findings of Trump’s own intelligence officers.
