Jamal Khashoggi Will Haunt Mohammed Bin Salman Forever

The Saudi crown prince accused of ordering the murder of my friend and Washington Post writer gets the (blood) red carpet treatment.

REUTERS— MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN AND DONALD TRUMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE, NOVEMBER 19TH 2025.

In January 2019, 100 days after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, I was invited to Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year Summit to talk about Jamal, whom I had hired and worked with for a year.

Glamour Editor-in-Chief Samantha Barry asked me what I would say to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA determined was responsible for ordering the killing of Jamal Khashoggi (a claim the prince denies). Jamal’s body was reportedly dismembered.

Here is the video of my answer.

Yes, I said that I would tell him, to his face, that as a man, he would not be remembered as a great man of history. He would be remembered as a murderer.

And that I hoped that Jamal’s spirit would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Yesterday, almost seven years to the day since the CIA determined that MBS was responsible for ordering Jamal’s killing ( a charge the Prince denies), Donald Trump rolled out the (blood) red carpet for Mohammed bin Salman, who has earned the nickname of Saudi Arabia’s “bonesaw” prince. Trump gave MBS a complete military flyover, with F-35s and F-16s.

But the sound of fighter jets wasn’t enough to chase away Jamal Khashoggi’s ghost.

The gaudy display turned into an exercise in the grotesque when reporters rightfully asked Trump and MBS about Jamal Khashoggi.

Yesterday, ABC news reporter Nancy Bruce asked the question of MBS. “Your royal highness, the U.S. concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you?”

At first, the crown prince smirked at the camera during the mention of 9/11 families. Then, seconds after that question about Khashoggi’s murder, the millennial crown prince looked down, fidgeting with his hands like a nervous schoolchild called into the principal’s office. And he let Trump do the dirty work -to attack ABC as fake news before launching into more vile commentary and smearing Jamal’s name:

“You’re mentioning someone [Khashoggi] who was extremely controversial; 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,” Trump said.

Pointing to MBS, “But he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”

MBS said on Khashoggi, “It’s really painful to hear a journalist losing his life for no real purpose, and it's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia, we did all the right steps for the investigation.

“It was painful and a huge mistake,” MBS said.

It was the only thing said that was true. The messy killing of Jamal, and the clumsy attempts to cover their tracks, we saw in real time seven years ago. We remember the body double walking out in Jamal’s clothes, the images of a clean-up crew carrying bleach to the consulate in Istanbul, nervous Saudi officials clumsily opening and closing cabinets in the consulate to prove Jamal wasn’t there.

The killing and the clumsy cover-up permanently smeared MBS’s reputation around the world 7 years ago. Investors publicly backed away from any association with Saudi Arabia. Western leaders were pressured to stop the sale of weapons and jets to Saudi Arabia for use in their assaults against Yemen.

MBS has denied ordering the killing, but told Norah O’' Donell of CBS in 2019, “I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.”

In his 2020 book, “Rage”, Bob Woodward wrote that Trump reportedly bragged about shielding the crown prince from the American fallout over the Khashoggi killing. “I saved his ass…I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.” Trump would go on to authorize an $8 billion sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E..

I read before that Mohammed bin Salman had a fantasy of going down as a great man in history, an Alexander the Great type of figure. But yesterday's shambolic display in the Oval Office showed the pathetic reality— the fidgety crown prince of Saudi Arabia has to rely on Trump, America’s geriatric, Temu pharaoh, to save him.

In my op-ed for the Guardian, “The Saudification of America is Underway”, I wrote about how Jamal’s last year of life and murder was a warning about what it looks like when a country closes in on itself, and speech and freedom are restricted under strongmen. In the aftermath of Jamal’s murder, the Kingdom began dumping insane sums of money into American sports and entertainment. And now we see, the increasing censorship of American media— akin to the “red-line” royal censors Jamal had to work around as an editor and journalist in Saudi Arabia.

Fighting censorship and silencing was the main theme of Jamal’s work during his last year of life. Jamal’s last, posthumous piece for the Washington Post that I edited was “What the Arab World Needs Most is Free Expression.” His passion and commitment to freedom of information, ideas, and exchange were clear. Jamal would tell me about how he did not want to criticize the crown prince too strongly; he just wished he could advise him and guide him. Far from the “controversial” dissident that Trump was making him out to be.

Mohammed bin Salman is not “our” guest. He is not a friend to the American people. He is no friend to anyone who values freedom and the right to speak without being killed. This is why MBS and all his enablers deserve every bit of the smoke.

I believe in various forms of justice, in this realm and beyond. Jamal’s memory and legacy deserve justice.

And MBS deserves to be more than embarrassed— he deserves to be haunted by Jamal for the rest of his life.