Business Insider: “President Donald Trump bragged to the veteran journalist Bob Woodward that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) from congressional scrutiny after the brutal assassination of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That’s according to Woodward’s upcoming book, ‘Rage.’ The book, a copy of which was obtained by Insider, is slated for release on September 15. Woodward conducted 18 wide-ranging interviews with the president for the book, as well as interviews with multiple senior White House officials and former administration officials. Still, Trump last month slammed the book as ‘a FAKE, as always, just as many of the others have been.’ 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.”

“The longtime Washington Post columnist was known for his criticism of the Saudi kingdom. The 59-year-old journalist 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 MBS had personally ordered Khashoggi’s murder. ‘The people at the Post are upset about the Khashoggi killing,’ Woodward told Trump on January 22, according to his book. ‘That is one of the most gruesome things. You yourself have said.’ ‘Yeah, but Iran is killing 36 people a day, so —’ Trump began, before Woodward redirected the conversation to Khashoggi’s murder. Woodward wrote that he continued pressing Trump about MBS’s role in ordering Khashoggi’s killing, which has been widely reported on. ‘I saved his ass,’ Trump said in 2018, amid the US outcry following Khashoggi’s murder, according to the book. ‘I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.'”