Studying Time: 3 minutes
It’s been a combative week for Donald Trump.
And plenty of observers imagine that the president’s rudeness with reporters is proof that the continuing pressure of the Epstein recordsdata scandal is starting to take a toll.
Earlier this week, Trump referred to a Bloomberg reporter as “Piggy.”
And right now within the Oval Workplace, he lashed out at one other feminine journalist for asking a related query.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) jokes with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia throughout a bilateral assembly within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Picture by Win McNamee/Getty Photographs)
This time, it was ABC White Home correspondent Mary Bruce, who requested in regards to the 2018 homicide and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi throughout a go to from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump mentioned, referring to Khashoggi.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” the president continued, based on CNN.
“Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it. And would you leave it at that? You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question.”
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia throughout a bilateral assembly within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Picture by Win McNamee/Getty Photographs)
Sure, Trump entered pissed-off mother mode, blasting a journalist for embarrassing him in entrance of “our guest” (who occurs to be a crown prince who’s been credibly accused of collaborating in state-sanctioned homicide).
Trump’s declare runs counter to the CIA’s investigation, which discovered that the crown prince accepted the 2018 operation that killed Khashoggi within the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
On the White Home right now, bin Salman denied any information of the crime and claimed that the Saudi authorities had “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.”
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) responds to a query the place Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was requested in regards to the demise of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi throughout a bilateral assembly within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Picture by Win McNamee/Getty Photographs)
It’s uncommon for a sitting US president to solid doubt on the findings of a CIA investigation.
However then once more, Khashoggi was a journalist, and no US president has been as overtly antagonistic towards the press as Trump.
Has he ramped up his assaults in current weeks? And in that case, is the elevated vitriol an effort to distract from the Epstein scandal?
Regardless of the case, with the Home passing a decision to launch the recordsdata, we’re nearer than ever to what could possibly be the ultimate phrase on one of many greatest scandals in US historical past.
