In 2018 the CIA concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and journalist. The Republican-led Senate responded with a unanimous resolution condemning the crown prince; one GOP senator said that if the case had gone before a jury, the prince "would be convicted in 30 minutes."
Yet President Donald Trump has repeatedly downplayed the killing, and his comments alongside the crown prince were notable even by his own standards. In the Oval Office he shifted from skepticism about the crown prince’s involvement to a flat defense, saying the prince "knew nothing about it." When a reporter asked about the murder in the prince’s presence, the president rebuked the question as needlessly embarrassing to his guest.
"You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that," the president told a reporter.
Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan el‑Atr Khashoggi, condemned the president’s remarks and said her husband’s past was "not justification to murder him," describing Jamal as "a good, transparent and brave man."
It is not unusual for U.S. presidents to weigh strategic ties against public criticism of human-rights abuses. What distinguishes the current approach is the apparent refusal even to give the appearance of weighing human rights in that calculus. At the start of his meeting with the crown prince, the president praised him, saying: "What he’s done is incredible, in terms of human rights and everything else."
Patterns of Praise and Excuses
This episode follows a broader pattern in which President Trump has publicly praised or minimized abuses by foreign leaders accused of serious violations:
- Russia: Early in his presidency he replied to a suggestion that Vladimir Putin was "a killer" by saying, "There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?" After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he initially described Putin’s tactics as "genius" and "savvy," though he later said he was "very disappointed" in the Russian leader.
- North Korea: When asked about reports of executions under Kim Jong Un, Mr. Trump called Kim "a tough guy," while also acknowledging that many nations have done bad things.
- Iraq: As a candidate, Mr. Trump praised the late Saddam Hussein for killing terrorists, praising his ruthlessness despite Hussein’s long record of extrajudicial killings and repression.
- Philippines: In a 2017 call with President Rodrigo Duterte, Mr. Trump congratulated him for what he called an "unbelievable job on the drug problem," comments that drew criticism given the thousands of extrajudicial killings linked to Duterte’s campaign.
- China (Uyghurs): A disputed account in John Bolton’s memoir alleges that, after a discussion with Xi Jinping about detention camps in Xinjiang, Mr. Trump told Xi to "go ahead" with the camps; U.S. officials offered differing statements about the accuracy of that account.
- Belarus: Mr. Trump once referred to Aleksandr Lukashenko as the "highly respected President of Belarus," even though Lukashenko has been widely accused of severe abuses and the U.S. State Department in 2020 declined to recognize him as Belarus’s legitimate president following a disputed election.
Across these episodes, critics argue that the president often prioritizes transactional relationships and geopolitical considerations over public denunciations of human-rights violations. Supporters say strategic alliances and realpolitik sometimes require private diplomacy rather than public rebuke.
Whatever the rationale, the Khashoggi episode illustrates how sensitive human-rights questions can become in high-level diplomacy—especially when leaders accused of severe abuses are treated as strategic partners.
