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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Fanfare And Deals Dominate Trump's First Day In Saudi Arabia

    Fanfare And Deals Dominate Trump's First Day In Saudi Arabia

    May 20, 20178:04 PM ET
    Vanessa Romo

    President Donald Trump's first day in Saudi Arabia began with a lavish reception and ended with an ostentatious ceremony, but not before Trump and the Saudi king signed several agreements spanning diplomatic, governmental and commercial ventures, including an arms deal worth $110 billion.

    In an effort cement political ties between the two allies, Trump and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud also formalized the "Joint Strategic Vision Declaration." Details of the agreement stipulate the nations form a "consultative group" that will collaborate to "counter violent extremism, disrupt the financing of terrorism, and advance defense cooperation," the White House said in a statement Saturday. The U.S. president and the Saudi king, or their designees, will meet at least once a year to discuss new strategies, alternating between the two countries, the White House also said.

    Building on a munitions deal begun during the Obama administration, the weapons package was officially finalized in a signing ceremony just hours after Air Force One touched down in Riyadh — where the president was greeted with a thundering display of flying jets, blasting cannons and trumpets.

    The arms deal includes the sale of cybersecurity technology, tanks, artillery, ships, helicopters and radar missile-defense systems. The New York Times reported the latter was a last-minute addition to the shopping list, after Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, intervened. During a meeting with Saudi officials at the White House earlier this month, Kushner called the head of Lockheed Martin, which develops the anti-ballistic missile system, to negotiate a cost reduction. Apparently, the savings were enough to sway the Saudis.

    The White House is touting the deal as a blow against Islamic extremist groups including ISIS, claiming it will boost security in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf against Iranian aggression and contribute to counterterrorism operations.

    "That was a tremendous day," Trump said, according to a White House pool report, shortly after the signing but long before his day was actually over. He added that the agreements signed Saturday would generate "hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs!"

    U.S. delegation members travelling with Trump, including Kushner, were in high spirits leading up to the signing ceremony. Upon entering the room where the bilateral meeting between Trump and Salman was held, Kushner and national security adviser H.R. McMaster exchanged a high-five, according to a White House pool report.

    But lawmakers critical of Saudi Arabia's role in the bloody civil war in Yemen — the kingdom's neighbor to the south — maintain the sale of arms that could be used in Saudi air strikes will add to the instability of the region.

    Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., denounced the latest deal in a HuffPost blog post.

    "Saudi Arabia is an important friend and partner for the United States," Murphy wrote, adding "But they are still a deeply imperfect friend. $110 billion in weapons will exacerbate, not ameliorate, those imperfections."

    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addressed the issue at a press briefing following a meeting with his counterpart and long-time friend Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, saying the continued arms negotiations were intended to help Saudi military actions in Yemen. Tillerson said the arms would help the Saudis be more "precise and targeted" in their military strikes, while still keeping pressure on the rebels in Yemen.

    He was also pleased with the long-term economic implications of the arms deal and other agreements for American interests.

    "Today truly is a historic moment in U.S.-Saudi relations," Tillerson said at a briefing Saturday. "They will bring hundreds of thousands of jobs," he also said.

    Looking ahead to the Arab-Islamic-American summit Sunday, where Trump will be speaking, Al-Jubeir used some familiar rhetoric from the Trump playbook.

    "If we can change the conversation in the U.S. and in the West from enmity toward the Islamic world to one of partnership we will have truly changed our world," he said.

    "And we will have truly drowned the voices of extremism and we will have drained the swamp from which extremism and terrorism emanates."

    In a separate transaction, American companies signed deals with Saudi leaders, a step the White House said will help with Saudi Arabia's economic reform plans. The total value of those deals is estimated to be between $300-$380 billion over 10 years.

    "They're going to hire U.S. companies," Trump's economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters, according to a White House pool report.

    Though Cohn did not divulge details about the deals, he did disclose they were related to "a bunch of infrastructure related-things...A lot of money. Big dollars. Big dollars."

    The U.S. is the largest oil investor in Saudi Arabia, al-Jubier said in his remarks at the briefing with Tillerson. ExxonMobil, the company formerly lead by Tillerson, is the largest single investor in the country, the foreign minister also said.

    Throughout Riyadh, Trump and his delegation were greeted with great fanfare. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, renowned for its glitzy gold interior and where the first family is staying, projected five-story images of Trump and Salman across the building's exterior prior to the president's arrival. And billboards along the motorcade route Saturday displayed pictures of the two leaders with one sentence, "Together we prevail," according to a White House pool report.

    Trump is set to deliver a speech Sunday in Riyadh about Islam to leaders from dozens of Arab and Muslim-majority nations.

    http://www.npr.org/2017/05/20/529313...n-saudi-arabia
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    In a separate transaction, American companies signed deals with Saudi leaders, a step the White House said will help with Saudi Arabia's economic reform plans. The total value of those deals is estimated to be between $300-$380 billion over 10 years.

    "They're going to hire U.S. companies," Trump's economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters, according to a White House pool report.

    Though Cohn did not divulge details about the deals, he did disclose they were related to "a bunch of infrastructure related-things...A lot of money. Big dollars. Big dollars."
    Oh wow. The military sales were $110 billion this year and $350 billion over 10 years plus these private industry deals are another $350 billion to $380 billion over 10 years. Geesus, this is over $700 billion of trade all one way into the United States, plus then there's the ARAMCO deal moving ARAMCO to the United States on the New York Stock Exchange.

    This is truly unbelievable. WAY TO GO TRUMP!! He promised he would make US safe again, he would make US win again, he would make US rich again, he would make US great again. And that's exactly what our incredible President Trump is doing.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    Oh wow. The military sales were $110 billion this year and $350 billion over 10 years plus these private industry deals are another $350 billion to $380 billion over 10 years. Geesus, this is over $700 billion of trade all one way into the United States, plus then there's the ARAMCO deal moving ARAMCO to the United States on the New York Stock Exchange.

    This is truly unbelievable. WAY TO GO TRUMP!! He promised he would make US safe again, he would make US win again, he would make US rich again, he would make US great again. And that's exactly what our incredible President Trump is doing.
    No. Huge ticket sales of the latest military gizmos is not going to make the US either safe or rich, not even over 10 years. And we are not winning here either. The Saudis are playing us like rich tourists. It's an embarrassment. Our president and our secretary of state are dancing like the natives as if this were some sort of hotel sponsored luau in Hawaii. First Obama genuflecting to Arab royalty, now this.

    No doubt he will have a little time left over to kick the Jews around just like the other Middle Eastern natives when he visits Israel.

    And we still have to hear a speech coming up. It better be good. He talked pretty tough about "radical Islamic terrorism" on the campaign trail. He should remember that some of still us still remember that 9/11 was carried out by Saudis here on expired student visas.
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    I'm very sorry you feel that way. It is far better for Arabs and Muslims to be flying their own planes, driving their own tanks, guiding their own ships risking their own lives defending their own nations, instead of ours, or so it seems to me.
    Last edited by Judy; 05-21-2017 at 11:22 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    I'm very sorry you feel that way. It is far better for Arabs and Muslims to be flying their own planes, driving their own tanks, guiding their own ships risking their own lives defending their own nations, instead of ours, or so it seems to me.

    Well, sure. But they would be doing that whether Trump was dancing to their tune or not. And the main point here is that it is no economic boon for us in any way.
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    Quote Originally Posted by pkskyali View Post
    Well, sure. But they would be doing that whether Trump was dancing to their tune or not. And the main point here is that it is no economic boon for us in any way.
    Well we see this very differently then.
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    The military industrial complex is always up for multi-million dollar, or should I say billion dollar in this case, deals. Forgive me, but I'm always leary of sharing American weapondry and technology with foreign powers. It's a nasty business that is full of corruption. The United States and Russia are the two biggest suppliers of weapons and military technology in the world.

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    I haven't had time to sit through all of Trump's speech in Saudi Arabia, but it sounds pretty good.

    Trump's treatment of Israel is still pretty sleazy. When asked if he would move the US embassy to Jerusalem he is reported to have said, "That's a good one."

    Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would actually be a very small gesture in treating Israel as country instead of an international Jewish ghetto, which is what you are left with otherwise, no matter how well diplomatically friendly or strategically allied the two are.
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    I am sitting through Trump's speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit and it truly is memorable. As near as I can tell, he is not reading from a script and he is speaking for nearly an hour. And he is telling it like it is. He is delivering substance and making a sound material stance against a real global problem that he will not gild or gloss over or excuse. He misses a few points, but still, it really is a great moment for Trump. Very well done, Donald.

    Whether it actually makes a difference remains to be seen, but it would be hard to blame this speech or Trump if it doesn't.
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    Trump was reading the speech, it was written in part by Stephen Miller, but Trump worked on it himself, too, so that's why he was able to read it without actually doing so, because he knew the speech so well since he helped to write it. How he found the time is beyond me. The man is a machine, I get tired just watching tidbits of what he does.

    It was a really good speech. And it seems the reaction among the 55 heads of state it was delivered to, they were pleased with it. Hopefully the next step of this process is getting the safe zones in Syria, lifting the Arab boycott on Israel and having peace talks with Palestine.
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