--- title: Saudi Arabia Will Retaliate If Trump Takes Action Over Khashoggi description: Saudi Arabia says it will reject President Donald Trump's 'severe punishment' in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. canonical: https://time.com/5424211/saudi-arabia-trump-jamal-khashoggi/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-14T13:20:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:44:21.219Z article:section: Politics og:title: Saudi Arabia Will Retaliate 'Stronger' if Trump Takes Action in Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance og:description: 'The kingdom rejects any threats,' the Saudi Press Agency reported og:url: https://time.com/5424211/saudi-arabia-trump-jamal-khashoggi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40528af0a5b626d5/69893c900a4a2262249d3f4b/saudi-arabia-consulate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4888 og:image:height: 2750 og:image:alt: saudi-arabia-consulate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Saudi Arabia Will Retaliate 'Stronger' if Trump Takes Action in Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance twitter:description: 'The kingdom rejects any threats,' the Saudi Press Agency reported twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40528af0a5b626d5/69893c900a4a2262249d3f4b/saudi-arabia-consulate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Saudi Arabia Will Retaliate 'Stronger' If President Trump Takes Action Over Journalist Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zainab Fattah / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Zainab Fattah / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 14, 2018 1:20 PM UTC  A security personnel looks out from the entrance of the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 14, 2018\. Writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2. A security personnel looks out from the entrance of the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 14, 2018\. Writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished after he walked into the consulate on Oct. 2. Petros Giannakouris—AP/REX/Shutterstock by [Zainab Fattah / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Zainab Fattah / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 14, 2018 1:20 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia will retaliate against any punitive measures with an even “stronger” response, the official news agency reported, in an apparent reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to take action over the disappearance of a prominent government critic. “The kingdom rejects any threats,” the Saudi Press Agency reported, citing an official it didn’t identify. Saudi Arabian equities slumped as much as 7 percent Sunday on concern over possible U.S. measures. In an excerpt from an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump added pressure on the kingdom, vowing “severe punishment” should the kingdom’s leaders be linked to the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “The kingdom emphasizes that it will respond to any measure against it with an even stronger measure,” the official said, according to SPA. “The kingdom’s economy has an influential and vital role in the global economy, and that kingdom’s economy is only affected by the global economy.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5424211/saudi-arabia-trump-jamal-khashoggi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5424211/saudi-arabia-trump-jamal-khashoggi/"},"headline":"Saudi Arabia Will Retaliate 'Stronger' If President Trump Takes Action Over Journalist Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance","datePublished":"2018-10-14T13:20:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:44:21.219Z","description":"'The kingdom rejects any threats,' the Saudi Press Agency reported","url":"https://time.com/5424211/saudi-arabia-trump-jamal-khashoggi/","keywords":["Saudi Arabia","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40528af0a5b626d5/69893c900a4a2262249d3f4b/saudi-arabia-consulate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zainab Fattah / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40528af0a5b626d5/69893c900a4a2262249d3f4b/saudi-arabia-consulate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"saudi-arabia-consulate","caption":"Saudi Arabia's consulate in Turkey","creditText":"Petros Giannakouris—AP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/saudi-arabia/","name":"Saudi Arabia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5424211/saudi-arabia-trump-jamal-khashoggi/","name":"Saudi Arabia Will Retaliate 'Stronger' If President Trump Takes Action Over Journalist Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance"}}]}] ```