*By Carlo Versano*
President Trump raised the possibility on Monday that missing and presumed-dead journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have been murdered by "rogue killers" from Saudi Arabia, a theory he floated to reporters after a phone call with Saudi King Salman.
Trump also said he was dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia "immediately" in the hopes of quelling a mounting geopolitical crisis stretching from Istanbul to Riyadh to Washington, D.C.
Trump said Salman issued a "very strong denial" that he was involved in the disappearance of Khashoggi.
In an interview with "60 Minutes" that aired on Sunday night, Trump said there would be "severe punishment" if it turns out the Saudi royal family carried out a hit under diplomatic cover on Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi citizen and columnist for the Washington Post who lived and worked in the U.S.
Trump's interview ー in which he opined on several issues in confident and defiant terms, at one point telling CBS's ($CBS) Lesley Stahl, "I'm president and you're not" ー is part of a coordinated media strategy that has allowed the president to hold multiple Q&As per day.
"They're finally unleashing Trump to be this master of all media," Politico's Daniel Lippman said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. "He's putting himself out there," even as Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has slowed the rate of press briefings to a trickle.
Meanwhile, three weeks out from the midterms, the 2020 race is heating up. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over the weekend released results of a DNA test that showed she was part Native American ー a response to Trump's repeated questioning of her ancestry. It was clearly part of a plan to pit her against the president and "lay the groundwork" for a run, said Lippman.
Trump responded "who cares," to a shouted question about Warren on Monday. He denied that he ever [offered](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwNlyiUy2Qk) to donate $1 million to charity if the Senator took a DNA test that showed she was "an Indian."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/im-the-president-and-youre-not).
Oil companies offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in a sale mandated by last year’s climate bill compromise.
Adidas is withdrawing its challenge to a Black Lives Matter trademark application featuring three parallel stripes, two days after it contested the image with the U.S. Trademark Office.
The state of Arkansas sued TikTok and Facebook parent Meta on Tuesday, claiming the social media companies were misleading consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and protections of users' private data.
Russia’s top security agency arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations against Evan Gershkovich.
North Carolina residents can now buy a handgun without getting a permit from a local sheriff. The Republican-controlled state House on Wednesday overrode the Democratic governor’s veto.
Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is facing sharp questioning before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where he is defending the company’s actions during an ongoing unionizing campaign.
Credit Suisse violated a plea agreement with U.S. authorities by failing to report secret offshore accounts that wealthy Americans used to avoid paying taxes, U.S. lawmakers said Wednesday.
According to a Reuters report, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being deposed over the bank's relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Capitol hill is trying to get to the bottom of the bank collapses that shocked the financial system last month, and today lawmakers grilled banking regulators about why they weren't able to stop the crisis. Cheddar News correspondent Lisa Bennatan broke down the proceedings.
Juul will finally have its day in court for its role in the teen vaping epidemic. The Minnesota attorney general is preparing for opening arguments in the state's lawsuit against the vape maker. Here to break down the complicated backstory for this legal case is Senior Reporter Chloe Aiello.
