WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump, in a bizarre written statement, said today that maybe Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman authorized the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but argued that regardless, preserving good relations with the Saudi kingdom is in the United States’ national interests.
“Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an ‘enemy of the state’ and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that — this is an unacceptable and horrible crime,” Trump said in the eight paragraph statement that began and ended with “America first!”