President Donald Trump set off waves of disgust by suggesting that assassinated Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi got what he deserved.
The Washington Post columnist was brutally murdered in October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government closely tied to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who joined Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday when a reporter asked about the dissident journalist's killing.
"You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial," Trump told reporters. "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. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
The CIA concluded by November 2018 that bin Salman had ordered Khashoggi's murder and the U.S. imposed sanctions against the kingdom, but Trump in his first term disputed the intelligence findings and defended the crown price, and he repulsed social media users by doing so again at the White House.
"Things happen.' Indeed," said Thomas Cozzolino, of GFT Technologies, adding a picture of a bone saw like the one used to torture and kill Khashoggi.
"Don’t embarrass our guest, Piggy!" posted attorney and blogger Armando Llorens, alluding to an insult Trump made this week against a woman journalist.
"He’s a terrible person," added X user Sycamore's Source. "He’s admitting he wants to kill journalists too."
"In Trump's mind, reporters that report on the truth about his criminal enterprises or those of his friends all have it coming," opined photographer Diana Rivera.
"Just the president of the United States rationalizing that a Washington Post reporter was basically asking to be murdered and cut to pieces with a bone saw because of his reporting," said historian Kevin Kruse. "As he sits next to the thug who ordered it."
"Trump’s own intel agencies concluded that MBS was aware in advance of the plot," noted influencer Yashar Ali. "Even if that weren’t the case, some of MBS’s closest aides were unquestionably involved in that plot, and it would have been virtually impossible for MBS not to be aware of it in advance."
"This & the possible sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia needs to be contextualized in coverage as the result of billions upon billions in bribes made from MBS to Trump via real estate projects, the jet gift, investment in Blackstone, crypto, and who knows what other payoffs we don't even know about," said journalist and podcaster Dan O'Sullivan.
"For the first time in my life, I desperately, DESPERATELY, wish I were that kid from It's A Good Life," sighed writer Maura Quint, referring to a character in "The Twilight Zone" who can banish people using his mind.
"Wow, people lost their jobs for saying less than that about Charlie Kirk," posted Bluesky user CodeNameHera.
"I mean, look, I'm not a reporter, so who am I to talk?" added political consultant Eric Schmeltzer. "But on a day where the president both just called a woman reporter 'Piggy' and is celebrating someone who had people bone saw apart one of my colleagues, I might just be a little ready to defend my colleagues and profession. But that's just me."