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Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok
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Trump at Odds with CIA Assessment on Journalist's Killing
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made a state visit to the White House this week, and it didn’t take long for a journalist to bring up the 2018 killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Your Royal Highness, the U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist,” a reporter from ABC News said. “Why should Americans trust you?”
President Donald Trump responded by mocking ABC News as “fake news.”
“You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump continued, referring to Khashoggi. “A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him things happened, but he [Crown Price Mohammed] 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.”
But as FactCheck.org's deputy director, Rob Farley, writes, the CIA concluded that Crown Price Mohammed did know about it.
U.S. intelligence assessments — leaked to reporters in 2018 and later released in a declassified report in early 2021 — concluded the crown prince “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Rob looked at the evidence cited in the declassified intelligence report, the conclusions reached by senior senators briefed by the CIA in late 2018 and the conclusions of a six-month investigation into Khashoggi’s killing by the United Nations. Crown Prince Mohammed has consistently denied involvement in the events that led to Khashoggi’s death.
For more, see: “Trump at Odds with CIA Assessment on Khashoggi Killing.”
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Our science writers have reported extensively on the discredited idea that vaccines may cause autism. So they were well-prepared to write about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revising its website to say that its previous statement that “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based claim.” The revised webpage echoes HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s misrepresentation of a recent Danish study that found no association between aluminum-containing vaccines and autism. Read more: "Revised CDC Website About Autism and Vaccines Is Not Evidence-Based."
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In 2025, 24.3 million people enrolled in insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The vast majority, 92%, receive subsidies that cover part or all of their premiums, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In 2021, Democrats in Congress passed expanded subsidies that lowered the percentage of income people have to pay toward premiums before subsidies kick in. Those payments are on a sliding scale. The expanded subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year. Read more: "Parsing the Rhetoric on ACA Subsidies."
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OUR ANNUAL FUNDRAISING DRIVE
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Today we’re launching our annual end-of-year fundraising drive. To help us hold politicians accountable, please consider a donation to FactCheck.org.
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Wrapping Up
Here's what else we've got for you this week:
- Experts Raise Doubts About Trump’s Dividend Payment Proposal
Q: Will U.S. citizens receive stimulus or tariff-based checks of $2,000 in November?
A: No checks are being issued. President Donald Trump said he wants to use tariff revenue to give “dividend” payments of “at least $2,000” to “middle-income people and lower-income people.” But no formal plan has been finalized and approved by Congress. Fiscal policy experts say there’s not enough tariff revenue for that.
Y lo que publicamos en español (English versions are accessible in each story):
- Trump presenta una estadística engañosa sobre la canasta de alimentos para la cena de Acción de Gracias
El menú para la cena de Acción de Gracias de Walmart para 2025, una canasta de alimentos preseleccionados, cuesta aproximadamente un 25 % menos que el del año pasado, pero incluye menos productos y distintas marcas de comida. Sin embargo, el presidente Donald Trump ha estado promoviendo engañosamente la disminución del precio de la canasta de este año sin mencionar las razones de esta gran reducción.
- Expertos plantean dudas sobre el pago de dividendos propuesto por Trump
P: ¿Recibirán los ciudadanos estadounidenses cheques de estímulo o compensaciones arancelarias de 2.000 dólares en noviembre?
R: No se están emitiendo cheques. El presidente Donald Trump dijo que quiere usar los ingresos arancelarios para pagar “dividendos” de “al menos 2.000 dólares” a “las personas de ingresos medios y bajos”. Pero el Congreso aún no ha finalizado ni aprobado ningún plan formal. Los expertos en política fiscal afirman que no hay suficientes ingresos arancelarios para eso.
- Analizando la retórica sobre los subsidios de la ACA
En una publicación en redes sociales, el senador republicano Ron Johnson criticó al senador independiente Bernie Sanders por afirmar erróneamente que las primas del seguro médico de la Ley de Cuidado de la Salud Asequible (ACA, por sus siglas en inglés, también conocida como Obamacare) se duplicarían como mínimo para “más de 20 millones de estadounidenses” si los subsidios ampliados expiraran. Se duplicarían con creces en promedio, pero no para todas esas 20 millones de personas. Johnson minimizó el aumento de los gastos de bolsillo, señalando que “es probable que los subsidios aumenten, no que disminuyan”.
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We'll take a break next week, and FactCheck.Weekly will return on Dec. 5.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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