Trump's relationship with Saudi crown prince under pressure
Trump on Sunday showed no signs of pulling back his support for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite mounting evidence and opposition to him within his own party.
Ahead of the expected release of a report detailing the intelligence community's findings on the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which reportedly will say the crown prince gave the order to kill him, Trump continued to express doubt about the crown prince's involvement.
The president was noncommittal when asked on "Fox News Sunday" about the possibility that the crown prince may have lied to him when he denied involvement in Khashoggi's death.
"I don’t know, you know, who could really know. But I can say this, he’s got many people now that say he had no knowledge," Trump said.
The president highlighted that the crown prince had directly denied involvement in Khashoggi's death "maybe five times." Trump has repeatedly pointed to those denials, even as his own intelligence community and lawmakers from both parties have become increasingly certain of Crown Prince Mohammed's role.
The CIA has reportedly determined that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing. The assessment of "high confidence" is based on multiple sources of intelligence, including a call between the crown prince's brother Khalid bin Salman and Khashoggi, The Washington Post reported.
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/417338-trump-defense-of-saudi-crown-prince-put-to-the-test-ahead-of
The CIA is part of the deep state which Trump doesn't trust. He's more partial to the derp state.