Despite his own CIA’s investigation that found that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation that resulted in the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump defended MBS and sharply criticized a reporter asking the crown prince about the killing.

“He’s done a phenomenal job,” President Trump told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce when she asked about the murder.

“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump said of Khashoggi, whose gruesome 2018 killing was investigated by the CIA in a report declassified in February 2021, just after President Joe Biden took office.

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“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him,” Trump said.

“Things happen, but he knew nothing about it,” the president insisted, defending the crown prince who is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, as The Washington Post reported.

“And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”

CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene described Trump as “furious,” and stated that he “tried to shut down questions” from Bruce “about US intelligence (the CIA assessment was done during Trump’s first term) having concluded that MBS likely ordered the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”

CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins called it “a stunning moment in the Oval Office,” and also noted that “the CIA — under Trump, in his first term — found that the crown prince ordered it.”

The declassified CIA report stated, “We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”

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“We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of decisionmaking in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,” the report continued.

“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization.”

In 2018, The Washington Post reported, “The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter.”

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Scuttling bipartisan efforts to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared he will not support any legislation to do so. The withdrawal of the Obamacare subsidies has sent next year’s premiums soaring for millions of Americans, and millions are expected to lose coverage due to the high cost.

In an all-caps post on his Truth Social website, the president announced that the only health care he would support “is sending the money directly back to the people, with nothing going to the big, fat, rich insurance companies.”

“The people will be allowed to negotiate and buy their own, much better, insurance. Power to the people!” he added.

Insurance companies are not known for negotiating premiums, and individual policies historically are far more expensive than group policies, such as those obtained through an employer or via the Obamacare exchanges.

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Noting that “senators are preparing to tee up a vote on the issue,” Bloomberg News reported that Trump’s message is now “complicating his party’s efforts to address health care costs.”

During the federal government  shutdown, Democrats highlighted the issue of skyrocketing premiums and negotiated a deal with Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune for a vote to extend the subsidies.

“With millions of Americans facing a potential hike in their premiums and with concerns about affordability front and center among the electorate, Democrats are seizing on the issue,” Bloomberg noted. “Republicans now face the challenging prospect of either bucking the president and extending subsidies or finding another solution to the issue of health-care costs, an issue that has long vexed lawmakers.”

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded, saying: “Republicans created this healthcare crisis, and they continue to try to rip affordable healthcare away from the American people,” according to Bloomberg News’ Erik Wasson. “They are who they are, and the American people know it, and they’re gonna pay the price.”

Politico reported on Tuesday that a “senior White House official said the Trump administration intends to put forward a health bill and left open the possibility of using the fast-track legislative process of reconciliation for passage of health or tariff legislation.”

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Critics blasted the president’s refusal to support extending subsidies.

“He’s for them, Not for you,” declared U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

“Trump’s priority isn’t your health or your costs, it’s his ego,” commented House Ways and Means Committee Democrats. “He’ll watch your health care costs triple just to erase the name Obamacare.”

“Between their trillion dollar cut to Medicaid and their elimination of boosted ACA tax credits, Donald Trump and the GOP will be responsible for millions of Americans losing health coverage and tens of millions more paying much higher costs,” wrote economic policy expert Michael Linden. “Crazy, totally crazy.”

“Senate Democrats who voted to end the shutdown got played. Shocking,” remarked political strategist Andrew Laureti.

“Trump’s made some curious decisions in the past few weeks, but nothing more consequential than deciding that instead of finding some middle ground on Ocare subsidies they’re gonna go in the entire opposite direction and try to jam through their own health care bill,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, responding to the Politico report. “Wild stuff.”

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Ten months into his second term, critics say President Donald Trump appears weakened, and Republicans who once moved in lockstep are now splintering into competing MAGA factions.

Trump currently sits on the worst polling averages of his presidency, according to data from The New York Times. The president’s “dramatic U-turn” on the release of the Epstein files — the result, critics say, of a wave of House Republicans prepared to defy his wishes — is being seen as a watershed moment. His once loyal foot soldier, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), has marched away, or ahead, of him on key issues, including affordability and the Epstein files.

Some, including Greene, say he lost his way by focusing too much on foreign policy and not enough on the promises that put him back in the White House, namely, lowering the cost of living.

“Trump is without question still the titular head of the Republican Party and leader of the America First and MAGA movement,” Republican strategist Dennis Lennox told The Washington Post. “But after a decade, there are new faces giving voice to the element that wants Trump to focus more on domestic issues.”

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“Lennox cited a ‘growing split’ among factions of the conservative movement ‘on a multitude of issues,'” added the Post, which noted that Trump is currently is a “weakened position.”

Meanwhile, The Hill sees current events as the “fight to define what the political right will stand for after President Trump leaves office.”

MAGA leaders like Greene are carving out a path, and are not afraid to criticize Trump, which comes at a cost. Trump has branded Greene a traitor, she said on Tuesday, before she lashed out.

“Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves, a patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me,” Greene said, according to BBC News.

Others, like U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), rumored to be considering another presidential run in 2028, are using the party’s battle with antisemitism as a tool to rebrand himself.

The weeks-old crisis at the Heritage Foundation — its president declared support for former Fox News host Tucker Carlson after he gave what some saw as a softball interview to far right extremist leader Nick Fuentes — has helped Republicans like Cruz take a stand against antisemitism. Fuentes is widely seen as promoting Christian nationalism, white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and Islamophobia.

On Sunday, President Trump took the opposing view, praising Carlson.

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“I found him to be good,” Trump said of Carlson. “I mean, he said good things about me over the years. And he’s, I think he’s good.”

The off-year elections earlier this month, where Democrats sharply beat Republicans by margins more than some expected, were “a wake-up call to Republicans that without Trump on the ballot to motivate voters, they may have to figure out a new political coalition,” The Hill noted.

“There was sort of a vibe shift on the right where it became completely apparent to everybody that Trump, who’s a dominating figure on the right, was not going to be here forever,” Tim Chapman, president of the Advancing American Freedom think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, told The Hill. “A lot of the policy objectives that we’re pursuing right now, many of them come from Trump personally. And so there’s a question as to what animates the next political coalition.”

Vice President JD Vance is seen as a likely heir to the Trump MAGA movement. But as Chapman told The Hill, “a lot of conservatives, who have very much for very good reasons, wanted to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt are now 10 months in and are very concerned about what they’re seeing, especially on the economic policy.”

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