--- title: Trump Talks to Saudi Prince Despite Uproar Over Khashoggi description: President Trump spoke by phone with the crown prince, even as U.S. lawmakers hold the ruler responsible for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi canonical: https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-10T02:24:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:51.491Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Talks to Saudi Prince Despite Uproar Over Khashoggi og:description: The call came a day after 16 Saudis were barred from the U.S. for the murder og:url: https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9f8c1f8983686a1/698947fb929fad67f9bf302c/donald-trump-mohammed-bin-salman.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: donald-trump-mohammed-bin-salman og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Talks to Saudi Prince Despite Uproar Over Khashoggi twitter:description: The call came a day after 16 Saudis were barred from the U.S. for the murder twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9f8c1f8983686a1/698947fb929fad67f9bf302c/donald-trump-mohammed-bin-salman.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Talks to the Saudi Crown Prince Despite Uproar Over Jamal Khashoggi's Killing > 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. ## Video: TIME Person of the Year: The Guardians and the War on Truth [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Person of the Year: The Guardians and the War on Truth](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ynSDAmcj.m3u8) (5:16)  _Published 2018-12-11. TIME Person of the Year: The Guardians and the War on Truth_ by [John Harney / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## John Harney / Bloomberg Contributor Apr 10, 2019 2:24 AM UTC  President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman shake hands before lunch at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2017. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman shake hands before lunch at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2017. Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images by [John Harney / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## John Harney / Bloomberg Contributor Apr 10, 2019 2:24 AM UTC President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, even as U.S. lawmakers, including some in his party, hold the ruler responsible for the killing of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi last fall and have demanded tougher penalties against the kingdom. Trump “had a productive conversation” with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday night. “They discussed Saudi Arabia’s critical role in ensuring Middle East stability, maintaining maximum pressure against Iran, and the importance of human rights issues.” The White House offered no additional details on the call. Trump has been eager to prevent Khashoggi’s killing from complicating or weakening U.S. ties to the kingdom, around which the administration has built much of its Middle East strategy. The phone call came just a day after the U.S. State Department said it would deny entry to 16 Saudis “over their roles” in Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The list included Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to the crown prince who had already been sanctioned over the killing. Questions have centered on whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing, a possibility U.S. intelligence agencies consider likely, and whether the Trump administration will be willing to sacrifice its strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia to hold him accountable. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has repeatedly insisted the U.S. will do what’s necessary to punish those responsible for the death of Khashoggi, a former Saudi insider turned critic who had moved to the U.S. and was a columnist for the Washington Post. But senators from both parties have demanded the White House be more forthcoming about intelligence gathered on what happened to Khashoggi, and have signaled they may back broader sanctions against Saudi Arabia. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/"},"headline":"Trump Talks to the Saudi Crown Prince Despite Uproar Over Jamal Khashoggi's Killing","datePublished":"2019-04-10T02:24:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:51.491Z","description":"The call came a day after 16 Saudis were barred from the U.S. for the murder","url":"https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/","keywords":["White House","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9f8c1f8983686a1/698947fb929fad67f9bf302c/donald-trump-mohammed-bin-salman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Harney / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9f8c1f8983686a1/698947fb929fad67f9bf302c/donald-trump-mohammed-bin-salman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-mohammed-bin-salman","caption":"Donald Trump Mohammed Bin Salman","creditText":"Nicholas Kamm—AFP/Getty Images","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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/","name":"Trump Talks to the Saudi Crown Prince Despite Uproar Over Jamal Khashoggi's Killing"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Person of the Year: The Guardians and the War on Truth","description":"TIME Person of the Year: The Guardians and the War on Truth","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ynSDAmcj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-12-11T12:31:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ynSDAmcj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/","duration":"PT5M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5567185/donald-trump-phone-call-mohammed-bin-salman-khashoggi/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```