MSNBC’s Katy Tur wrecked one of Trump’s favorite lies about a $115 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia by checking the facts of what the deal really is.
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Tur said, “Talking about the trade relationship we with them, the president isn’t pointing to Saudi Arabia as a helpful ally in negotiating peace around the Middle East. He is pointing to this arms deal. We should do a fact check on it because he’s not correctly describing this arms deal. Here is what The Washington Post writes. Most of the publicly announced items have been previously announced by the Obama administration and there appears to be a few if any signed contracts. Rather many of the announcements were MOIs, memorandums of intent. There were six specific items adding up to $28 billion. But all had been previously notified to Congress by the Obama administration. In essence, this is a wish list. It’s worth recalling that Obama offered Saudi Arabia 115 billion dollars in deals, about half of which resulted in actual sales. He’s pointing over and over again to this Saudi arms deal but it’s not doing what the president is doing what it’s saying it’s doing.”
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The arms deal that Trump is using for justification not to take action after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump’s inaction has nothing to do with the arms deal that the president continues to misrepresent. The truth is that the Saudi royal family has been funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump for decades. There is no policy reason for what Trump is doing. It is cold hard corruption. The Saudi royal family bought themselves a guy who ended up being president.
The next time Trump talks about the Saudi arms deal keep in mind that there are few signed contracts, all of the items were already agreed to by Obama, and the deal is an excuse being used as a front for Trump corruption.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
