Top Non-Partisan Think Tank: Trump’s ‘$110 Billion Arms Deal to Saudi Arabia Is Fake News’

‘None of the Deals Identified So Far Are New, All Began in the Obama Administration’

Remember those 1100 to 1600 Carrier jobs Donald Trump claimed he saved? Fake news.

Remember those “millions of jobs” claimed he saved and created as a result of his first overseas trip? Fake news.

Remember the $110 billion arms deal President Trump announced during his overseas trip last month? 

A top non-partisan think tank, the Brookings Institution, is now calling it “fake news.”

“Last month, President Trump visited Saudi Arabia and his administration announced that he had concluded a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom. Only problem is that there is no deal. It’s fake news,” writes Brookings’ Bruce Riedel.

There are some deals, but no contracts signed, nothing that would allow a claim of a $110 billion deal.

“I’ve spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal,” Riedel writes. “Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them ‘intended sales.’ None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.”

Let’s repeat that last point: “None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.”

Riedel says Trump and the Saudi government Put together a “wish list of possible deals” and portrayed “that as a deal. Even then the numbers don’t add up. It’s fake news.”

Here’s CNN’s report from May:

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