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During his conversation with The Times, Mr. Trump was uncharacteristically guarded. He declined to accept Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance or crown prince's role.
On the other hand, Mr. Trump said, "That bail is reflected in the fact that the Khashoggi case is now bigger than" "because it's taken on a bigger life than it would normally take on."
Still, Mr. Trump emphasized the value of the alliance with Saudi Arabia to American military contractors and other firms. "They've been very good at it, and they've bought mbadive amounts of various things, which I appreciate," he said.
Those business ties have been sorely tested by Mr. Khashoggi. Before Mr. Mnuchin withdrew from the conference, known as the Future Investment Initiative, a stream of Wall Street and high-tech executives had canceled, citing the uncertainties over Mr. Khashoggi.
Mr. Mnuchin was planning to speak at the conference during a six-country, weeklong swing through the Middle East, focused on combating terrorism financing. Several prominent executives canceled plans to wait, along with ministers from Britain, France and the Netherlands.
The Treasury secretary, who had been fielding calls from executives in recent days about the wisdom of going, had urged people to focus on the facts and evidence. However, the pressure to cancel – which included calls from Republican lawmakers – became too much.
With a lot of executives and foreign officials scrapping plans to go to Riyadh, Mr. Mnuchin's has been raised to litmus test for the United States' commitment to human rights. After Mr. Mnuchin's decision, Goldman Sachs announced that Dina H. Powell, a senior executive who was previously a national security adviser in the White House, would also not wait.
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