‘Saved his ass’: Trump reportedly boasted he shielded MBS after Khashoggi murder

US President Donald Trump boasted that he saved Saudi Arabia’s crown prince from Congress over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an explosive new book.

In one of 18 interviews with veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward, Trump defended Mohammed bin Salman over the gruesome murder inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey of Khashoggi, a US-based critic of the crown prince’s rule.

“I saved his ass,” Trump told Woodward for his forthcoming book “Rage,” according to an excerpt published Thursday by Business Insider.

“I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop,” Trump said.

In an echo of the infamous 2018 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which the US leader appeared to accept his denials of election meddling, Trump noted that Prince Mohammed denied involvement.

“He will always say that he didn’t do it,” Trump was quoted as telling Woodward.

“He says that to everybody, and frankly I’m happy that he says that. But he will say that to you, he will say that to Congress, and he will say that to everybody. He’s never said he did it,” Trump said.

Woodward recorded his conversations with Trump, with the president’s permission, and has released several recordings, but has not put out audio of the conversation about Khashoggi.

Khashoggi’s killing triggered an uproar among US lawmakers but the Trump administration has stood by Saudi Arabia, including controversially bypassing Congress for an $8 billion arms deal.

In this photo taken on December 15, 2014, Jamal Khashoggi looks on at a press conference in the Bahraini capital Manama. (AFP/Mohammed Al-Shaikh)

As he has said publicly, Trump defended his stance by pointing to the major oil producer’s purchases of US goods, including weapons.

“He says very strongly that he didn’t do it,” Trump was quoted as telling Woodward. “Bob, they spent $400 billion over a fairly short period of time.”

Khashoggi — who wrote opinion pieces for The Washington Post, Woodward’s newspaper — was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to handle marriage paperwork.

Within minutes, the onetime royal insider turned critic was strangled to death and his body then dismembered, according to Turkish and US officials.

A Saudi court on Monday handed jail terms of between seven to 20 years to eight unnamed defendants and overturned five death sentences, in a final ruling condemned by Khashoggi’s fiancee and a UN rights expert.