Eric Trump expressed his sympathy for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and explained the U.S. has to tread carefully to keep its relationship with the Saudi kingdom.

The president's son spoke on Fox News' Outnumbered show on Friday afternoon to lament the brutal murder of the 60-year-old journalist who disappeared on October 2 after walking into the Saudi consulate in Turkey.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi died in a fight after offering various explanations for his disappearance two weeks ago.

There remains rumors he was murdered by squad of Saudi hitmen.

Trump said the the U.S. is keen to keep its good terms with Saudi Arabia, one of the nation's few allies in the Middle East, and asked if the nation is willing to 'throw that all away' over Khashoggi's murder.

'Listen, I think it's tough, right, you can't have journalists getting murdered. And the way they did it was obviously savage and awful, and you have 15 people go through and I mean, God knows what actually happened in that room, but whatever happened was clearly awful,' he said before Saudi confirmed the journalist was dead.

Eric Trump says the U.S. shouldn't 'throw away' their relationship with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Speaking on Fox News on Friday Trump condemned his death as 'savage' but said the U.S. has to act carefully as Saudi Arabia is one of the nation's few friends in the Middle east

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 in the Saudi consulate in Turkey and is widely believed to have been allegedly tortured and killed by Saudi 'hit squad' of 15 men

'At the same time. I think we have to be honest with ourselves that as America, we face a little bit of a problem in that we don't have all that many friends in the Middle East. And you've got real problems in the Middle East,' he added.

He said in the greater scheme of international politics, the U.S. should focus on maintaining a good relationship with Saudi Arabia.

'Saudi Arabia has actually been a friend to the U.S. in many ways. They're ordering from us, massive, massive orders. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of arms that will create tens and tens of thousands of jobs,' Trump said.

He condemned the murder of a journalist as 'savage' but qualified his statement saying 'at the same time who are our friends in the Middle East - the U.A.E, Israel, and Saudi...'

'So what are you going to do you do? You're going to take that and you're going to throw all of that away?' he asked.

Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian citizen with U.S. residency, disappeared on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get paperwork needed to marry his fiancee

Jamal Kashoggi is seen with his finacee Hatice Cengiz, who stood outside the consulate waiting for hours after he walked inside on October 2, never to emerge

'I don't mean to be binary with this. One action is not acceptable but it leaves the country in a very tough predicament,' he closed his statements.

The murder of Khashoggi, who wrote columns for the Washington Post and was a harsh critic of the Saudi government, has shed light on the reserved Saudi royal family which has been tied to Islamic extremist terrorism as well as human rights abuses.

On October 2 Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen who had been living in the United States entered the consulate to receive a document that would permit him to wed his Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz.

She stood outside the consulate for hours, waiting for Khashoggi to emerge. But he never did.

It is widely believed that Khashoggi was brutally tortured and murdered inside the consulate, with the Turkish government investigating an alleged 'hit squad' of 15 Saudi security men who entered and exited Istanbul on private jets.

Eric Trump gushed about the great relationship the U.S. has with Saudi Arabia, specifically in trading arms saying: 'You can't be executing journalists ... at the same time who are our friends in the Middle East, what are you going to do, take that and throw all of that away?'

Donald Trump said Thursday that he presumes Khashoggi is dead and that the U.S. response to Saudi Arabia will likely be 'very severe.'

'It certainly looks that way to me. It's very sad,' Trump said.

In an interview with The New York Times, that president based his acknowledgment that Khashoggi was dead on intelligence reports.

Asked what would be the consequences for Saudi Arabia, Trump said: 'Well, it'll have to be very severe. I mean, it's bad, bad stuff.'

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has close ties to some of the alleged hit men, has denied the allegation.