President Donald Trump said “we may never know” the facts around the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He also praised Saudi Arabia as a “great ally.” | Evan Vucci/AP photo foreign policy Trump defiantly refuses to condemn Saudi crown prince for Khashoggi's death

A defiant President Donald Trump on Tuesday stood up for Saudi Arabia, refusing to implicate the country's powerful crown prince in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, calling the country "a great ally" and delivering an apparent final verdict on the situation.

Trump also contradicted reports that the CIA had concluded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly involved in Khashoggi's death, casting a veneer of doubt on the whole situation.


“Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump proclaimed in a lengthy White House statement oddly prefaced with one of Trump’s favorite lines — “America First!”

“King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning of execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” Trump said, also referring to the Saudi Arabian king, who defers much of the day-to-day operations to the crown prince.

But, the president allowed, it is possible that the crown prince was familiar with the “tragic event” beforehand.

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The world "may never know" the truth, Trump concluded.

The remarkable statement — populated with numerous exclamation points and punchy asides — was a case study in Trump’s worldview. It painted Iran as the predominant threat in the Middle East and stressed the importance of financial considerations in making strategic alliances.

Seemingly dictated by Trump himself, Tuesday’s statement was also an ode to the nationalism the president espouses. He began his remarks by describing the world as “a very dangerous place,” acknowledged the “terrible” crime against Khashoggi, but stressed the importance of remaining “a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia” to promote American interests.

Hours later, when leaving the White House for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump told reporters the approach is "all about America first. We're not going to give up hundreds of billions of dollars in orders and let Russia, China and everybody else have them. It’s all about, for me, very simple, America first."

It's a theme he hammered repeatedly in the short gaggle with reporters.

"It’s about make America great again, it's about America first," he said. "We're going to stay with Saudi Arabia."

To his critics, it's a world view that prioritizes deal-making over human rights. To his backers, it's a pragmatic realism that prioritizes American citizens.

Bipartisan opposition rose against the president‘s statement on Tuesday night, with the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee invoking a law that will force Trump to say whether the crown prince is behind Khashoggi‘s murder.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the panel‘s chairman, and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking member, made their request through the Magnitsky Act, a law that can require Trump to determine whether world leaders violated human rights and, if they did, allows for sanctions previously named by the pair.

Corker, who is retiring, returned to his old form as a Trump agitator by adding on Twitter: “I never thought I’d see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.“

The president is also facing opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has golfed with the president but who is echoing his long-held skepticism of U.S. foreign policy toward the kingdom.

“The President indicates that Saudi Arabia is the lesser two evils compared to Iran and so the US won’t punish Saudi Arabia for the brutal killing and dismemberment of a dissident journalist in their consulate. I disagree,“ Paul tweeted.

Just days ahead of the G-20 summit in Argentina later this month, which both Trump and bin Salman will attend, the president praised the Middle Eastern power for committing to invest $450 billion in the United States — a figure that experts have questioned.

“This is a record amount of money," Trump said. "It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States."

As of October, the Saudis had only followed through on $14.5 billion in arms purchases.

When asked by reporters whether he would meet with the crown prince at the G-20 summit, Trump said, "I would, yeah."

The eight-paragraph missive comes as Trump faces pressure from across the political spectrum to further punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's killing. The White House recently sanctioned 17 Saudis, including some high level officials, accused of being responsible for the killing. But Trump's statement indicated no more punishment was in the works.

In a press conference shortly after Trump issued his statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the president was making the "commitment" that "the United States will continue to have a relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

The response has rattled even some within Trump's own party.

“We have to have a government-to-government, institutional relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That doesn’t mean we have to have a Trump-Kushner, family-to-family relationship with the King and MBS, that’s not how a democratic republic does business,” said Eric Edelman, former undersecretary of defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration, referring to the close relationship between the crown prince, often called MBS, and Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner.

Trump's memo bore similarities to how Trump reacted in the initial days following reports of Khashoggi’s death: jumping to defend Saudi Arabia and leaving the tough language to his secretary of State, while carefully declining to declare the crown prince culpable.

“Here we go again with you’re guilty until proven innocent,” he told the Associated Press two weeks after Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where his murder occurred.

Saudi officials have offered shifting stories about Khashoggi’s death since early October, when the Washington Post columnist was killed in a Saudi embassi in Istanbul. The latest explanation came last Thursday, when the country’s foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, described the murder in remarks last Thursday as a “tremendous mistake,” but maintained that the crown prince had zero involvement.

In mid-October, the state-run Saudi Press Agency also threatened retaliation against any sanctions, responding to Trump’s assertion that Riyadh might face “severe punishment" over the incident.

While Trump's Tuesday remarks would indicate that he is done penalizing Saudi Arabia, the president acknowledged that members of Congress might press him to take a harsher stance “for political or other reasons.”

The president said he would “consider whatever ideas are presented to me [by Congress], but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America.”

Congressional Democrats swiftly took up the president's challenge Tuesday afternoon, vowing to revive legislation that would punish Saudi Arabia for its involvement in an ongoing war in Yemen, and forcing the intelligence community to release its conclusions regarding Khashoggi's death.

“President Trump’s habit of siding with murderous foreign dictators over American intelligence professionals is a stain on our democracy that undermines the American ideal,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who has previously backed legislation that would put pressure on the Saudis and Trump administration to reduce their involvement in Yemen's civil war.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, threatened legislation if intelligence leaders refuse to "state publicly ... what the U.S. Intelligence Community believes about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi."

In a statement Tuesday, Khashoggi's employer, The Washington Post, called Trump's reaction to the situation "a betrayal of long-established American values of respect for human rights."

Trump's equivocating regarding the crown prince's involvement in Khashoggi's murder comes after the Washington Post — followed by several other media outlets — reported last Friday that the CIA had already concluded the young leader did play a key role.

Trump, however, appeared to suggest that the intelligence probe remained incomplete. The president had said he would receive an intelligence assessment on the issue Tuesday.

“Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event,” he said.

He reiterated the point later in the day to reporters.

"They didn't make a determination," he said of the CIA.

In his own remarks, Pompeo said the government had made an "enormous effort" on "fact finding" regarding Khashoggi's death.

But he declined to comment on what the CIA had concluded about the crown prince's culpability.

"Facts will obviously still continue to come to light," Pompeo said. "I’m confident of that. It’s the way the world works."

Eliana Johnson, Elana Schor and Burgess Everett contributed to this report.