Trump berates journalist over Khashoggi questions

President defends Crown Prince from 'fake' ABC News

- ANDREW FEINBERG

Donald Trump welcomed Mohammed bin Salman to the White House yesterday for the Saudi Crown Prince’s first visit to Washington since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The president berated a reporter who asked about the killing.

Mr Trump lost his temper and began yelling at ABC News reporter Mary Bruce after she raised the issue of Saudi Arabia's role in the September 11 terror attacks and also asked the Crown Prince about the 2018 murder of the Washington Post columnist by Saudi agents acting on his orders.

As Bruce pressed him on whether his family should be doing business in the oil-rich kingdom during his presidency and asked the Saudi leader on why Americans should trust him given his role in Khashoggi's murder, Mr Trump angrily interrupted her and asked her to identify her employer. After she said she worked for ABC News, he shouted at her: “Fake News. ABC, fake news, one of the worst, one of the worst in the business.”

He angrily denied having anything to do with his eponymous real estate and hotel company's multiple partnerships with Saudi developers and claimed his sons, who currently run the company, have “done very little with Saudi Arabia”.

Mr Trump also attempted to dismiss the question about the killing of Khashoggi - a US permanent resident at the time of his murder - by calling the slain journalist was “extremely controversial”.