WATCH: Trump suggests that 'rogue killers' in the Saudi consulate could have murdered missing journalist

President Donald Trump on Monday seemed to indicate that he's buying the Saudi government's blanket denial of being responsible for the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

On Monday, the president tweeted that he "just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia" and said that the king "denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened 'to our Saudi Arabian citizen.'"

Speaking with reporters on the White House lawn, Trump once again emphasized that the Saudi government "firmly denies" that it had anything to do with Khashoggi's disappearance, and he suggested that there was another culprit to blame.

"It sounds to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers," the president said.

Trump then said that the Saudi government's denial "could not have been stronger."

Jamal Khashoggi, who frequently wrote articles critical of the Saudi government, has been missing ever since he entered Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey last week. Several leaks from intelligence agencies have claimed that he was killed by Saudi operatives and then dismembered and removed from the building in pieces.