US President Donald Trump defended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Tuesday over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting the kingdom's de facto ruler "knew nothing" about the murder as he wooed him at White House.

The United States and Saudi Arabia approved a civilian nuclear deal and the sale of F-35 jets as Trump sought to brush the murder and dismemberment of the Washington Post columnist under the carpet.

Trump raged at a journalist who asked the prince in the Oval Office about the case for "embarrassing" the Saudi royal on his first US trip since the murder, and called Khashoggi "extremely controversial."

"A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about," he said.

"Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happened, but he (the prince) 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."

The Saudi royal,........

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