A. Trump’s Financial Ties to the Saudis
There has been a great deal of speculation about the role that not only Russia had in bringing the execrable Donald Trump to power but also Saudi Arabia. And despite Trump’s denial that he has any financial links to the Saudis, the facts say otherwise:
From Politifact:
In June 2001, Trump sold the entire 45th floor of Trump World Tower to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to multiple reports. The apartments, located near the United Nations headquarters, were later converted in 2008 into part of the Saudi Mission to the UN.
The transaction earned Trump $4.5 million, according to the New York Daily News, citing a New York City Finance Department spokeswoman.
The Daily News obtained documents showing the deal involved five apartments, which included 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. In addition to the purchase price, the annual charges of more than $85,000 for building amenities — assuming they remained the same through the years — means "Trump was paid at least $5.7 million by the Saudi government since 2001," the Daily News wrote in a September 2016 article.
From The Washington Post:
Crucially, though, [Trump] and his businesses have continued to benefit substantially from Saudi customers, including the government of Saudi Arabia. Press reports have indicated that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently paid for rooms and meals at the Trump hotels in Washington and Chicago. In 2017, Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 to reserve rooms at Trump’s hotel in Washington. The kingdom itself paid $4.5 million in 2001 to purchase a floor of Trump World Tower and continues to pay tens of thousands in annual common charges to Trump businesses for that property (the total of which could be up to $5.7 million since 2001, according to one estimate). In the past year, as bookings fell overall, Trump’s hotels in New York and Chicago reported a significant uptick in bookings from Saudi Arabia. And a major factor in a recent increase in revenue for the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan was that Saudis accompanying the crown prince during a recent visit stayed there, as The Washington Post has reported.
Trump said at a campaign rally in 2015 about Saudi Arabia: “I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
From The Times of Israel:
The president’s links to Saudi billionaires and princes go back years, and appear to have only deepened.
In 1991, as Trump was teetering on personal bankruptcy and scrambling to raise cash, he sold his 282-foot Trump yacht “Princess” to Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal for $20 million, a third less than what he reportedly paid for it.
Four years later, the prince came to his rescue again, joining other investors in a $325 million deal for Trump’s money-losing Plaza Hotel…
Last year, the kingdom announced plans to invest $20 billion in a private US-focused infrastructure fund managed by Blackstone Group, an investment firm led by CEO Stephen Schwarzman. Blackstone stock rose on the news. Earlier this year, Trump unveiled a $200 billion federal plan to fix the nation’s airports, roads, highways and ports, tapping private companies for help and selling off some government owned infrastructure.
Schwarzman, who celebrated his 70th birthday at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, accompanied Trump on his visit to Saudi Arabia.
From Open Secrets:
A single “last minute” visit by the Saudi Crown Prince drove Trump International Hotel in Manhattan’s room revenue up 13 percent in the first three months of 2018 following a two-year decline. A 2018 report to Trump Hotel Chicago investors on foreign and U.S. customers broken down by country originally obtained by the Washington Post showed a 169 percent increase in Saudi Arabia-based patrons since 2016. Planning documents, agendas and conversations with organizers indicate that the Saudi government paid for more than 500 nights in Trump hotel rooms.
Trump campaign officials and other close Trump allies have joined in the Saudi’s lobbying efforts.
B. Saudi Arabia, from where 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers originated, was excluded from the Muslim travel ban:
Hmmm. Interesting, isn’t it? Do business with Trump, escape having your citizens banned from the U.S.
C. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s worst human rights violators.
Amnesty International issued a hard-hitting report, covering the year 2019, highlighting this barbaric regime’s record. Among its “highlights”:
On 23 April, 37 Saudi Arabian men were executed. They had been convicted in various trials before the SCC. Most were Shi’a Muslims convicted after grossly unfair trials that relied on “confessions” tainted by torture allegations. Among the 37 were 11 convicted of spying for Iran. At least 15 others were convicted of violent offences related to their participation in anti-government demonstrations in the Shi’a-majority Eastern Province between 2011 and 2012. They were subjected to prolonged pre-trial detention and told the court that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated during interrogation to make them “confess”. Among them was Abdulkareem al-Hawaj, a young Shi’a man who was arrested when aged 16.
Lack of press freedom (Reporters without Borders, ranks Saudi Arabia 172nd out of 180 in this area), violations of women’s rights (the granting of the right to drive notwithstanding), brutal abuse of migrant workers, promiscuous use of the death penalty, torture, the brutal repression of religious minorities, attacks on dissident journalists (see below), human trafficking of slaves, and savage repression of LGBTQ individuals make Saudi Arabia a human rights nightmare.
The Saudis have also waged relentless war on Yemen. From Human Rights Watch:
Human Rights Watch has documented at least 90 apparently unlawful Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, including deadly attacks on Yemeni fishing boats that have killed dozens and appeared to be deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects in violation of the laws of war. At time of writing, according to the Yemen Data Project, the Saudi-led coalition has conducted more than 20,100 airstrikes on Yemen since the war began, an average of 12 attacks a day. The coalition has bombed hospitals, school buses, markets, mosques, farms, bridges, factories, and detention centers.
The death toll has been horrendous. Wikipedia:
According to ACLED, over 100,000 people have been killed in Yemen, including more than 12,000 civilians, as well as estimates of more than 85,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine due to the war.[152][167][168] In 2018, the United Nations warned that 13 million Yemeni civilians face starvation in what it says could become "the worst famine in the world in 100 years."[169] The crisis has only begun to gain as much international media attention as the Syrian Civil War in 2018.[170][171]
And the specter of famine stalks Yemen:
The current level of hunger in Yemen is unprecedented and is causing severe hardship for millions of people. Despite ongoing humanitarian assistance, over 20 million Yemenis are food insecure, of which nearly 10 million are acutely food insecure.
The rate of child malnutrition is one of the highest in the world and the nutrition situation continues to deteriorate. A recent survey showed that almost one third of families have gaps in their diets, and hardly ever consume foods like pulses, vegetables, fruit, dairy products or meat. Malnutrition rates among women and children in Yemen remain among the highest in the world, with more than a million women and 2 million children requiring treatment for acute malnutrition. In 2019, WFP is gradually expanding its assistance to reach all of them with special nutrition support.
Both the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Saudi Arabia share blame for this dire situation, although the Saudi role has been more prominent.
D. Saudi Arabia has provided extensive support for many of the world’s most extreme terrorists
For years, Saudi Arabia was the epicenter for the training and financial support of Wahhabist religious fanatics preaching religious war and anti-Semitism. In recent years Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman has claimed he is reigning in the movement Saudi Arabia has done so much to promote. But this restraint comes rather late. From Foreign Policy (2019):
...Wahhabism’s trail of wreckage runs deep and wide. It will take much more than a few op-eds by a single Saudi cleric to make a dent in the damage that’s been done. Last month, two potent reminders were on vivid display. In the run-up to Indonesia’s national elections, several reports detailed the troubling expansion of Saudi-backed Wahhabism in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, which is shifting its politics rightward and dangerously degrading longstanding national traditions of pluralism and tolerance. And in the aftermath of the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, article after article described the inroads that Wahhabism had made over decades, generating serious fractures within Sri Lanka’s Muslim community and establishing a fertile breeding ground for the kind of violent extremists who perpetrated the bombings.
More on Saudi Arabia and the frightening philosophy of Wahhabism here.
E. Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman have a VERY interesting relationship, and the death of Jamal Khashoggi may be part of it
Jared Kushner, Trump’s utterly corrupt, wildly incompetent, walking example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, has been cultivated by the Saudis very carefully. The New York Times has the goods. After explaining that American officials were concerned about Kushner’s close relationship to Mohammed bin Salman, their report says:
Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said three former senior American officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.
But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls…
“The relationship between Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman constitutes the foundation of the Trump policy not just toward Saudi Arabia but toward the region,” said Martin Indyk, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Middle East envoy. The administration’s reliance on the Saudis in the peace process, its support for the kingdom’s feud with Qatar, an American ally, and its backing of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, he said, all grew out of “that bromance.”
From The Guardian (March 2019):
Kushner’s role is particularly troubling because, as the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, he has cultivated and shored up the relationship between Trump and the ruthless Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The Kushner-Prince Mohammed friendship is at the heart of the US-Saudi relationship today, and it’s one reason that Trump has tried to shield the crown prince from blame for the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump and Kushner, both used to shady real estate deals, adapted quickly to Saudi Arabia’s system of patronage and clientelism: unwavering support from the Trump administration for the promise of weapons sales and other business deals…
The alliance between Kushner and Prince Mohammed has consequences for US policy: Trump ignored a deadline last month to submit a report to Congress on whether the crown prince was personally responsible for Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as US intelligence agencies concluded.
Ah yes, the horrible death of Jamal Khashoggi, legal resident of the United States and dissident Saudi journalist. Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul in 2018 by security forces working for the Saudi government. The BBC has the often disturbing details of how Khashoggi was brutally put to death, his body cut up, and the complete and total guilt of the Saudi government in authorizing this crime. And who is giving the Saudis cover for this?
President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been a promoter of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman since the early days of the administration and recently offered the prince advice on how to handle the outrage over the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Kushner, 37, who serves as Trump's adviser on the Middle East, has kept up informal conversations with the prince, 33, since early 2017, the Times reported, citing unnamed sources. Three former senior officials told the paper that the politically inexperienced Kushner's private chats with Mohammed could have made him "susceptible to Saudi manipulation."
And of course Little Jared used Trump’s favorite right-wing sewer, Sean Hannity, to muddy the waters:
White House adviser Jared Kushner told Sean Hannity on Monday night that U.S. intelligence agencies “are making their assessments” in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder—even though the CIA has already reportedly concluded that the Saudi crown prince ordered the assassination. Asked by the Fox News host whether the U.S. would “get to the bottom” of who was responsible for Khashoggi’s brutal death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Kushner made no mention of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman whatsoever. Instead, he said only that “we’re hoping to make sure that there’s justice brought where that should be.” Kushner’s apparent dodge appears to echo similar remarks made by President Trump, who has repeatedly insisted the crown prince has not been directly tied to the killing, despite reports to the contrary. In his interview with Trump’s son-in-law, Hannity failed to mention reports implicating the Saudi crown prince, as well as reports that Kushner advised bin Salman on how to manage global outrage over Khashoggi’s death.
Did Kushner use his (totally unwarranted) security clearance to give the Saudis lists of their enemies? The Daily Mail in the UK asserted that he did, but I’m still looking for more corroboration. (I am aware of The Intercept’s reporting and the concerns raised by Rep. Joaquin Castro.) But it is suspicious that in October 2017 Kushner made a secret trip to Saudi Arabia and in November MBS began a crackdown on critics of the regime. And Trump tweeted his approval.
And then there’s the fact that Trump bragged to Bob Woodward that he protected Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the assassination of JamalKhashoggi. "I saved his ass," Trump said in 2018. "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone."
F. U.S. Arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the export of nuclear technology to the Saudis
Finally, there is the issue of U.S. arms sales to the Saudis. Given the brutality of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, many in the U.S. want to freeze arms sales to the kingdom. (To be honest the Obama Administration initially supported the Saudi position, much to its members’ later regret.) In 2019 both the House and Senate moved the restrict Trump’s wholly fraudulent “emergency sale” of $8 billion in weaponry to the Saudis and the UAE, but Trump vetoed the move and the Republican Senate upheld his veto. (PBS has more details on the arms sale.)
Trump has exaggerated the size of U.S. sales to Saudi Arabia to make himself look like a savvy negotiator (which he isn’t). But most troubling to me has been the transfer of nuclear technology to the Saudis. Although the technology is ostensibly only for the development of nuclear power plants, this section of a 2019 report from Reuters caught my attention:
Saudi Arabia and Washington had begun talks about nuclear power development before Trump’s presidency. But progress has been slow as the kingdom opposes measures that would prevent it from enriching uranium and reprocessing plutonium, two potential pathways to making fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Last year the crown prince said the kingdom did not want to acquire a nuclear bomb, but if its arch-rival Iran did, “we will follow suit as soon as possible.”
The disgraced Michael Flynn was heavily involved in lobbying for these transfers, of course. And this section of a report by The Daily Beast is instructive as well:
The U.S. Atomic Energy Act requires the U.S. sign the 123 Agreement with countries it plans to cooperate with on nuclear energy and sets forth conditions and controls to govern nuclear commercial transactions. In addition to a 123 Agreement, the U.S. has sought to uphold the “gold standard” in almost ever nuclear deal since 2009.
The standard, first established during the end of the George W. Bush administration when the U.S. signed a nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates, requires foreign countries to not enrich and reprocess nuclear fuel…
Trump officials, including Energy Secretary Perry, have appeared before Congress several times to answer questions about the administration’s plans for a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. While officials have said they are committed to requiring that Saudi Arabia sign a 123 Agreement with the U.S., they have wavered on the extent to which the administration would require Riyadh adhere to additional nuclear safeguards. [My emphasis.]
So, to sum up:
1. Trump has huge conflicts of interest because of his extensive financial relations with Saudi Arabia.
2. Saudi Arabia was excluded from the anti-Muslim travel ban because Trump does business with them.
3. Saudi Arabia, Trump’s good friend, is a major human rights violator.
4. Saudi Arabia has been one of the world’s major exporters of extremist pro-terror philosophies.
5. The Saudis use Jared Kushner as their “in” with the Trump Administration, and helped cover up the Saudi role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi with Kushner’s help.
6. Trump has continued to sell weapons to the Saudis despite Saudi Arabia’s barbaric use of them in Yemen, and has pushed the transfer of nuclear technology to the kingdom even though the Saudis will not pledge they will never use this technology to create nuclear weapons.
A sinister relationship indeed.