‘POTUS sided with a brutal dictator over CIA? Shocking’: Trump widely bashed for siding with Saudi Arabia over Jamal Khashoggi’s killing

President Donald Trump was broadly criticized on Tuesday after issuing a forceful defense of Saudi Arabia over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump signaled he does not plan to make significant changes to the US-Saudi partnership, pointing to the purported economic and strategic benefits of maintaining a strong relationship with Riyadh.

The president also would not say whether he shares the widely held belief that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman orchestrated the Saudi journalist's killing. "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't," Trump said.

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This is a new low

Khashoggi's editor at The Post, Karen Attiah, said Trump's Tuesday statement represents "a new low."

"Trump’s statement on Saudi Arabia + #Khashoggi is full of lies and a blatant disregard for his own intelligence agencies," Attiah tweeted. "It also shows an unforgivable disregard for the lives of Saudis who dare criticize the regime. This is a new low."

Last week, The Post reported that the CIA had concluded with " target="_blank"high confidence" that the crown prince directly ordered Khashoggi's killing at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October.

The CIA is expected to release a report on Khashoggi's killing later Tuesday.

Fred Ryan, the CEO and publisher of The Post, released a similarly bruising statement.

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Trump's statement was not entirely unexpected. He was slow to comment on the CIA's reported findings over the weekend, and w

Following his forceful defense of Saudi Arabia and the crown prince Tuesday, critics slammed Trump for what they said was an undermining of the US's commitment to human rights.

"Since Mr. Trump excels in dishonesty, it is now up to members of Congress to obtain & declassify the CIA findings on Jamal Khashoggi’s death," former CIA director John Brennan tweeted in response to Trump's statement. "No one in Saudi Arabia — most especially the Crown Prince — should escape accountability for such a heinous act."

"POTUS sided with a brutal dictator over CIA? Shocking," one current FBI agent, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told INSIDER in a text message.

Another agent said Trump is using the intelligence community as a "whipping toy for political purposes." The agent told INSIDER politicizing the intelligence community is not a new tactic, but added that Trump's propensity for doing so is "unprecedented."

"Not surprising when politicians trash the [intelligence community] or any one agency if they get an outcome undesirable to their agenda. It has been going on for decades," this person said, pointing to lawmakers' response to the Vietnam War and the use of CIA blacksites.

"This case is unique because you have a US president who has routinely debased US intelligence not because he gets outcomes undesirable for a certain political agenda, but because they hurt his own personal or financial interests," they added. "That’s unprecedented."

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Glenn Carle, a former CIA covert operative, offered a similarly blunt assessment of Trump's response to the Khashoggi investigation.

"The main pillar of this administration when it comes to the Middle East is that the president wants to make nice with [Crown Prince Mohammed] and Saudi Arabia because he likes dictators and because the Saudis have bought the man," Carle told INSIDER.

‘POTUS sided with a brutal dictator over CIA? Shocking’: Trump widely bashed for siding with Saudi Arabia over Jamal Khashoggi’s killing

This is a new low

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Trump is Trumpian

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