More Woodward book leakage

President Donald Trump bragged that he protected Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the assassination and dismembering of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.

"I saved his ass," Trump had said amid the US outcry over Khashoggi's killing, according to Bob Woodward's new book. "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop."

  Business Insider

And he thought that would impress Woodward in a positive way? Dear God.

Trump repeatedly used executive power to block or bypass congressional efforts to cut ties with Riyadh after Khashoggi's murder.

[...]

The president also bypassed Congress to push through an arms sale of roughly $8 billion to the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, and he later vetoed several resolutions blocking the sale.

More recently, Trump has moved to circumvent a decades-old arms-control pact in order to sell weaponized drones to the Saudis and to other countries in the region, sparking backlash from Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

[...]

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 CIA concluded a little over a month later that Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, had personally ordered Khashoggi's murder.

"The people at the Post are upset about the Khashoggi killing," Woodward told Trump on January 22, his book says.

[...]

"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.

[...]

The president also told Woodward he didn't believe that MBS ordered Khashoggi's murder, though the US and other foreign intelligence services concluded that he did order the attack.

[...]

"He will always say that he didn't do it," Trump said of MBS. "He says that to everybody, and frankly I'm happy that he says that. But he will say that to you, he will say that to Congress, and he will say that to everybody. He's never said he did it."

"Do you believe that he did it?" Woodward asked.

"No, he says that he didn't do it," Trump replied.

"I know, but do you really believe —" Woodward said before Trump cut him off.

"He says very strongly that he didn't do it," Trump said. "Bob, they spent $400 billion over a fairly short period of time."

He added: "And you know, they're in the Middle East. You know, they're big. Because of their religious monuments, you know, they have the real power. They have the oil, but they also have the great monuments for religion. You know that, right? For that religion.

Nutso.

"They wouldn't last a week if we're not there, and they know it," he said.

Sure.

UPDATE:

Dear god.

Also, I'm sure most women can understand, since it would take them less than a second after meeting Trump to know that it's definitely NOT going to happen.