Dictators protect each other. They understand each other. Trump was upset that the question was asked directly to visiting Mehmet, OOPs! I meant Mohammad, Bin Salman because the Trump progeny and expanded family are doing billion-dollar tacky business with the tacky Kingdom.
Trump has promised MBS that his first dance in the new ballroom will be with him, flowing abayas and all....
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Donald Trump Says ABC Should Lose Its Broadcast License After Getting Irate Over Reporter’s Questions About Jamal Khashoggi Murder, Jeffrey Epstein Files
Ted Johnson
Tue, November 18, 2025
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images [Iznogood: The looks on MBS's face suggest he's thinking, "We'll see when this reporter goes to visit the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul]
UPDATED: Donald Trump called for ABC to lose its broadcast license after he grew irate at correspondent Mary Bruce after she asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and later asked the president about the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Trump has berated ABC correspondents before and has called for networks to lose their licenses, his latest anger directed at Bruce for her questions and the way they were asked.
After chiding Bruce for asking a “horrible,” insubordinate” and “just a terrible question,” Trump chided her, “You’re all psyched up. Somebody psyched you over at ABC and they’re going to psych it. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”
He later accused ABC of being “one of the perpetrators” of a Democratic hoax over Epstein.
“I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong, and we have a great commissioner, the chairman, who should look at that.” Trump was referring to his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr.
Earlier, Bruce had asked Trump whether it was a “conflict of interest” for his family to be doing business with Saudi Arabia while he is president. Then, she asked, “Your royal highness, the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you?”
Trump asked Bruce who she was, then called ABC News “fake news” and “one of the worst in the business.”
“I have nothing to do with the family business. .. What my family does is fine. They do business all over. They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia. Actually, they could, I’m sure they could do a lot. And anything they’ve done, it’s been very good. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve built a tremendous business. …I’ve decided to leave that success behind and make America very successful.”
He then addressed Bruce’s question about the Saudi prince. “He’s done a phenomenal job.”
Referring to Khashoggi, he said, “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
Then, referring to the crown prince, Trump said to Bruce, “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.”
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who had been a high-profile critic of the Saudi government, was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The CIA concluded in 2018, during Trump’s first term, that the crown prince ordered his killing.
The crown prince told reporters that “it’s really painful to hear that anyone [who has] been losing his life for no real purpose and not in a legal way, and it’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of investigation in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to make sure nothing happened like that. It’s painful, and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
ABC and Disney did not comment, but Bruce later posted a video in which she noted that Trump “didn’t give a clear answer” on why he does not just order the release of the Epstein files.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) posted on X, “Trump again directs the FCC to rescind a broadcast license over a reporter’s question. Thin-skinned. Weak. Un-American. Authoritarian.”
Others spoke out about Trump’s defense of the crown prince and of his dismissal of Khashoggi’s murder as something where “things happen.”
The Washington Post editorial board wrote, “These distortions dishonor Khashoggi’s legacy, stand at odds with the facts and are beneath the office of the president.
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