INTELLIGENCE/MEDIA/SAUDI ARABIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump disputed that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that the de facto leader of American ally Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of a U.S.-based journalist critical of the kingdom’s royal family. Citing vehement denials by the crown prince and king that they were involved, Trump said Thursday that ‘maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very, very vicious place.’ Critics in Congress and high-ranking officials in other countries are accusing Trump of ignoring human rights and giving Saudi Arabia a pass for economic reasons, including its influence on the world oil market. Trump said this week he would not impose harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month.”
–The Associated Press, “Trump Points to ‘Vicious’ World in Discussing Writer’s Death,” The New York Times online, November 23, 2018