President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that he will not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the death and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In an exclamation-mark laden statement subtitled “America First!” Trump said that “our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
Trump Signals U.S. Won’t Take Punitive Measures Against Saudi Crown Prince Over Journalist’s Killing
Pretty much since day 1 the priority of Trump’s administration has been to help Saudi Arabia get away with murdering this journalist. I wonder what he’ll do next time Putin kills somebody.
Remember Trump campaigning on forcing Saudi Arabia to go to trial for 9/11? Yeah, if you believed that, I bet you still believe Mexico’s going to pay for a wall.
With enormous ease Trump lied his way through another news conference yesterday.
TRUMP: “After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States.
Actual orders under the arms deal are actually far smaller and neither country has announced or substantiated Trump’s repeated assertion that the Saudis are poised to inject $450 billion overall into the U.S. economy.
Partly negotiated under the Obama administration, it mixes old deals, some new business and prospective purchases that have not been worked out. The Pentagon said last month that Saudi Arabia had signed “letters of offer and acceptance” for only $14.5 billion in military purchases and
confirmed Tuesday that nothing further has reached that stage.
Moreover, the State Department estimated last year that if the full $110 billion in
prospective business is fulfilled, it could end up “potentially supporting tens of thousands of new jobs in the United States.” That’s a far cry from the 500,000 to 600,000 jobs that Trump has said the arms deal is worth.
The U.S. exported only $16 billion in goods to Saudi Arabia last year, and imported even more. Saudi Arabia’s entire annual economic production is valued at $684 billion. A $450 billion Saudi investment in the U.S. would amount to about 6 percent of its entire economy going to the U.S. if spread, for example, over 10 years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...d0975fd6199_story.html?utm_term=.a3f24309f051
Trump cited the Kingdom's influence over oil prices and said, "if we abandon Saudi it would be a terrible mistake." Trump also said he was
"not going to destroy the economy of our country" over Khashoggi by giving up arms deals to Saudi Arabia.
Destroying our economy over Khashoggi is preposterous, and only his diehard fans could believe that statement. The U.S. economy does not need Saudi oil. The U.S. is a net oil exporter. Apparently, Trump did not know that. No one is talking about abandoning S.A.
"The CIA looked at it," Trump told journalists at the White House. "
They have nothing definitive." "Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said.
The CIA's report is about as definitive as you can get. Based on the clandestinely recorded audio of the Washington Post columnist’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, the CIA had concluded with
"high confidence" that the crown prince directly ordered Khashoggi's killing.
Was there any part of this news conference where Trump actually told the truth. Sure, he began by saying his family would spend Thanksgiving at Mar-a- Lago.
