Since journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2 and was never seen again, credible—some might call it compelling!—evidence has emerged that Crown Prince Mohammed “Bone Saw” bin Salman may have personally ordered a 15-man operation that resulted in the Saudi dissident being killed and dismembered. When Donald Trump finally got around to commenting on the matter last week, it was to tell reporters that he has no plans to send a message that those sorts of things are unacceptable to the U.S., and to wonder aloud whether the fuss was even merited, on account of Khashoggi not even being a U.S. citizen (he is a permanent resident of Virginia). On Monday, though, perhaps sensing that he needed to do more to justify his refusal to punish the kingdom, the president took a new-yet-familiar tack: he explained that King Salman—ole Bone Saw’s octogenarian father—had denied the allegations to him personally, and that there’s no reason whatsoever not to trust the guy.

Speaking to reporters en route to visit areas destroyed by Hurricane Michael while he hit the links, Trump relayed the news that he’d had a nice chat with the king, who assured him that Saudi Arabia definitely had nothing to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance, despite claims by Turkey that there is audio and visual evidence of Khashoggi being killed inside the consulate. Of course, taking Salman at his word despite evidence to the contrary is the same move Trump pulled in Helsinki last summer, where he explained that there was no reason to believe multiple U.S. intelligence agencies’ charges of Russian election meddling because Vladimir Putin himself had denied it, and there was simply no way the ex-K.G.B. agent would have lied.

On Monday, though, Trump took things one step further, not only parroting Saudi Arabia’s denial but offering up an alternative theory on the kingdom’s behalf re: what might have happened to the Washington Post columnist. “I don’t want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers,” Trump told reporters. Coincidentally, that’s the same theory the kingdom was apparently planning to float in order to shield M.B.S. (who probably knows a lot more about the situation than his father anyway) from blame.

The president’s comments opened a window for King Salman and Prince Mohammed to stand by their denials of involvement in Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Seasoned observers of Middle East politics, including some at senior levels of the Turkish government, have speculated for days about the likelihood that the royal court would seek to accuse a “rogue” operator within the Saudi security services of killing Mr. Khashoggi.