Trump Bragged About Protecting Saudi Prince Whose Goons Dismembered a Journalist via Bone Saw

 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/donald-trump-mbs-saved-his-ass

 In a world in which Donald Trump is president, it can be hard to remember scandals that happened two years ago, let alone last week. But try, if you can, to recall the incident in which journalist, U.S. resident, and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was kidnapped and dismembered via bone saw, allegedly on the order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump let Prince Mohammed get a way with it, because the kingdom bought some weapons from the U.S. and the guy was bros with Jared Kushner. (Also, because he has a fondness for dictators.) While you’re recollecting, also remember that Trump continued to defend the de facto Saudi leader even after Saudi Arabia admitted the killing was premeditated and the CIA separately concluded the prince directed the murder. (The prince, naturally, denies the whole thing.) All in all, it was a pretty messed up situation, even for a guy who muses about dating his own daughter. Also messed up? That Trump apparently boasted about helping bin Salman get away with the whole thing, according to—what else?— Bob Woodward’s new book. Per Business Insider:

 Donald Trump bragged that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the brutal assassination of the American journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That’s according to the veteran reporter Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, Rage, set to be released next Tuesday.… Woodward wrote that Trump called him on January 22 shortly after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the conversation, Woodward pressed the president about Khashoggi’s gruesome murder. Khashoggi, 59, a longtime Washington Post columnist known for his criticism of the Saudi kingdom, was assassinated and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, after going there to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage. “The people at the Post are upset about the Khashoggi killing,” Woodward told Trump on January 22, his book says. “That is one of the most gruesome things. You yourself have said.”

 “Yeah, but Iran is killing 36 people a day, so—” Trump began, before Woodward redirected the conversation and continued to press Trump about MBS’s role in ordering Khashoggi’s killing. “I saved his ass,” Trump had said amid the U.S. outcry following Khashoggi's murder, the book says. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”