Trump Had a Secret Oval Office Meeting With the Saudi Vice Minister of Defense – and Didn’t Reveal It Until Forced To

President Donald Trump had a secret meeting with the Saudi Vice Minister of Defense on Monday. It did not appear on his public schedule, and no readout of the meeting has been published. In fact, the only way reporters knew about the meeting is because the Saudis announced it, as CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted:

Here’s Saudi Vice Minister of Defense Khalid bin Salman’s tweet revealing the meeting, which shows Jared Kushner also in attendance:

President Trump minutes ago posted a tweet acknowledging the meeting, which was Monday, not Tuesday as his statement might suggest:

White House Correspondents’ Association president Jonathan Karl issued a statement denouncing the lack of transparency:

President Trump has a long history of protecting the Saudi government. He immediately went to bat for them after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allegedly, as the CIA has stated, had Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered.