WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s embrace of Saudi Arabia has exposed a foreign-policy rift in the Republican Party, as some of his GOP colleagues warn that not punishing the kingdom for its role in killing a U.S.-based columnist will have dangerous consequences.

Many Republicans — even Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, who share their views on the matter with the president — have denounced Trump’s decision not to levy harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was “astounded” by Trump’s statement and likened it to a news release for Saudi Arabia.

“It is a delicate situation when we have a long-term ally that we’ve had for decades, but we have a crown prince that I believe ordered the killing of a journalist,” Corker told Chattanooga, Tenn., TV station WTVC in his home state. “Everything points to the fact that he knew about it and directed it.”

Trump insisted there was not enough evidence to blame the Saudi crown prince for Khashoggi’s killing. He said during a Thanksgiving appearance at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida: “Maybe the world should be held accountable ‘cause the world is a vicious place. World is a very, very vicious place.”

Trump also pushed back on the idea that his refusal to punish the Saudis more will embolden other governments to go after journalists and commit other human rights abuses.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump’s decision, saying the U.S. has already placed sanctions on 17 Saudi officials suspected of involvement in the Oct. 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist, who had been critical of the royal family.

“We’ve sanctioned 17 people — some of them very senior in the Saudi government,” Pompeo said Wednesday in a radio interview with KCMO in Kansas City, Mo. “We are going to make sure that America always stands for human rights.”

Graham, R-S.C., wasn’t convinced: “When we lose our moral voice, we lose our strongest asset,” he said.

Saudi prosecutors have said a 15-man team sent to Istanbul killed Khashoggi with tranquilizers and then dismembered his body, which has not been found. Those findings came after Saudi authorities spent weeks denying Khashoggi had been killed in the consulate.

Democrats and Republicans have accused Trump of ignoring U.S. intelligence that concluded, according to one U.S. official, that it was likely the crown prince ordered the killing. Several lawmakers have indicated that the U.S. has no “smoking gun” that proves he was responsible, but they have called on the CIA and other top intelligence agencies to publicly share what they told the president about the slaying.

Trump, in his statement on Tuesday, argued that punishing Saudi Arabia by “foolishly canceling” Saudi arms deals worth billions of dollars to the U.S. would only benefit Russia and China. He has said that the kingdom is an important ally that has helped to lower oil prices and that, if he holds all countries to such high standards, the U.S. won’t have any allies left.

Critics, including high-ranking officials in other countries, accused Trump of ignoring human rights and giving Saudi Arabia a pass for economic reasons.