The White House has issued an official Statement by Trump on Saudi Arabia.

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2018
Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia

America First!

The world is a very dangerous place!

Wait.

Seriously?

That’s an official statement by the president?

Then there’s a paragraph saying Iran bad, then one saying Saudi Arabia good. Then we get to the money part.

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. Of the $450 billion, $110 billion will be spent on the purchase of military equipment from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and many other great U.S. defense contractors. If we foolishly cancel these contracts, Russia and China would be the enormous beneficiaries – and very happy to acquire all of this newfound business. It would be a wonderful gift to them directly from the United States!

Well let’s draw up an actual price list then, so we can see where we are. How many Saudi billions for how many pesky critics sliced into pieces on an ambassador’s desk? Where in the price list do we locate Saudi investments in madrassas and mosques and university departments? What’s the profit we derive from the spread of Wahhabism?

The crime against Jamal Khashoggi was a terrible one, and one that our country does not condone. Indeed, we have taken strong action against those already known to have participated in the murder. After great independent research, we now know many details of this horrible crime. We have already sanctioned 17 Saudis known to have been involved in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, and the disposal of his body.

It’s reassuring to learn that their independent research was “great” but do we know great for whom? Also…is Trump hoping we will think the “17 Saudis known to have been involved in the murder” acted on their own, without any orders from higher up?

Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that — this is an unacceptable and horrible crime. King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. 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 epistemology at its finest. One, the accused deny it! Add many exclamation points and intensifiers! Putin really really really said he never did! MbS swears up and down he never did! It could very well be that he did but…he didn’t he didn’t he didn’t!

And this is in an official statement – “maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Jesus god.

That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran. The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region. It is our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!

By saying the terrorist state murder of a critic in an embassy in another country is not significant enough to trouble this important relationship-alliance-partnership-bromance – with exclamation points!!!

The murder of Khashoggi is terrorism. Saudi Arabia is a terrorist state. The murderous Saudi version of Islam is a terrorizing religion. But the Saudis have $$$$ and that’s all Trump gives a rat’s ass about.

I understand there are members of Congress who, for political or other reasons, would like to go in a different direction – and they are free to do so. I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America. After the United States, Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world. They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels — so important for the world. As President of the United States I intend to ensure that, in a very dangerous world, America is pursuing its national interests and vigorously contesting countries that wish to do us harm. Very simply it is called America First!

As it was in 1939 and 1940 and nearly all of 1941.