Saudi Crown Prince MBS says Osama bin Laden used Saudi citizens to carry out the 9/11 attacks, calling the events “painful” and harmful to US–Saudi ties. Photo: X.
President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House on Tuesday. The meeting quickly turned tense when Trump berated a reporter who raised questions about the killing. The confrontation began when ABC News reporter Mary Bruce asked about Saudi Arabia’s alleged ties to the September 11 attacks and pressed the Crown Prince on his role in the murder of the Washington Post columnist. The visit marked the royal’s first visit to Washington since the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Her question prompted Trump to lose his temper, yelling at Bruce as she attempted to continue. Before the president’s interruption escalated, Prince Mohammed, widely known as MBS, responded calmly, saying he felt “painful” about the suffering caused by the September 11 attacks but urged people to “focus on reality.”
MBS asserted that Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi heir who led al Qaeda, had “used Saudi people” to carry out the attacks in an attempt to damage U.S.–Saudi relations.
Turning to the Khashoggi killing, which US intelligence concluded he had approved, the Crown Prince said it was “really painful” to hear of “anyone … losing his life … for no real purpose or not in a legal way.”
He added, “And it’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of investigation, etc, in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that, and it’s painful and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
A 2021 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded, “We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Khashoggi.”
Saudi Arabia rejected the findings as “negative, false and unacceptable.”
As Bruce continued pressing the president about whether his family should conduct business in Saudi Arabia during his administration, he questioned why Americans should trust the Crown Prince. Trump cut her off again, demanding she name her employer.
When she replied “ABC News,” he shouted, “Fake News. ABC, fake news, one of the worst, one of the worst in the business.”
He denied involvement in his company’s Saudi partnerships, insisting his sons, who run the Trump Organization, have “done very little with Saudi Arabia.”
Attempting to sidestep the Khashoggi question, Trump labeled the slain journalist “extremely controversial.”
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him. Things happen, but he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that,” he said, accusing Bruce of “embarrassing” the Crown Prince.
Also Read: Trump Announces F-35 Jet Transfer To Saudi Arabia, Mirroring Israel Deal
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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