U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman enter the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Reuters: Exclusive: Trump complains Saudis not paying fair share for U.S. defense
President Donald Trump complained on Thursday that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was not treating the United States fairly and Washington was losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom.
In an interview with Reuters, Trump confirmed his administration was in talks about possible visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel in the second half of May. He is due to make his first trip abroad as president for a May 25 NATO summit in Brussels and could add other stops.
"Frankly, Saudi Arabia has not treated us fairly, because we are losing a tremendous amount of money in defending Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: He can tell them directly when he visits there in the coming weeks .... Possible Trump trip to Saudi Arabia being discussed: U.S. official (Reuters).
Best President Ever!
ReplyDeleteHe is very consistent and very fair!
Aizino,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect doesn't it seem a bit early in POTUS's first term to be referring to him as the best ever.
Of course Saudi Arabia is not paying it's "fair" share for US defense. Part of the main goals of any nation state should be to ensure that it and its citizens have access to a reliable and reasonable priced supply of oil and oil related resources. Saudi Arabia has this in abundance. As such, it made good sense to try and establish good relations with them.
In the past, as a nation heavily dependent upon the import of oil and oil related resources, the US would have had little choice but to go along to get along with Saudi Arabia at whatever terms the Saudis wanted. Essentially if Saudi leadership told American leadership to "jump" all American leaders could have hoped to do was to jump and hope they got high enough!!
Post 9/11 I had stated that the US should develop all of its oil and gas reserves while investing in the refining capacity to process this in order to gain some leverage when dealing with the importers. The operative word here was "leverage" as complete independence of these people was literally a "pipe dream" along the lines of Cinderella and/or unicorns.
Now with the advent of fracking not only is energy independence a possibility but if done properly the US might even be able to become the go to country for oil and oil related products perhaps even allowing us to become the most powerful country in the world. So, of course Saudi Arabia needs to pay more for its defense and needs to properly compensate the Americans for their services AND with the advent of fracking we FINALLY have some power to actually negotiate.
When Saudi Arabia had the Americans "over a barrel" they bought influence with American leaders. There is just something about America and Americans that we seem to enjoy getting screwed over by foreigners. The less you like us the more we seem to enjoy being screwed over. Then along comes DJT who has the audacity to suggest that Saudi Arabia perhaps should pay a fair a price to its hired American security contractor, the United States military and the American people.
No wonder some people can't stand him!! Maybe, just maybe America is finally beginning to behave like a normal and rational country. We can always hope. In any event, it is WAY to early in his first term to make pronouncements like "best President ever."
"With all due respect doesn't it seem a bit early in POTUS's first term to be referring to him as the best ever. "
ReplyDeleteNormally, I would agree.
It was an allusion to JabberJay's posts saying "best election evah"
It was an acknowledgement of Jabber's many non-contributions and a slap in the face.
Trump imposed a 20% tariffs on Canadian lumber. This was in the media. It probably was not mentioned in the party media such as CNN, NBC, or MSLSD in the proper context.
A lumber mill in Maine is adding a 2nd shift. That is jobs.
Trump is doing the right thing.
It is about $$$.
From milk to lumber to NATO, to Saudi Arabian defense, to South Korean defense, to renegotiating NAFTA.
In the campaign he would pace voters. He came on strong and then dialed it back some.
It is like negotiating. You open high and then dial it back some.
A professional once told me they made a bid that was immediately accepted. That professional immediately knew they had started too low.
Trump has said he would scrap NAFTA, then he said he would negotiate. The Mexican and Canadian leaders were mad and then dialed it back themselves. If they don't, bluffs are called and we let the chips fall.
Trump started a 232 investigation on aluminum. you better get with your overlords and look that up. Howe else are you going to propagandize?
Like I said, best president ever!