Comments by "Voix de la raison" (@voixdelaraison593) on "Kudlow on China: If phase one goes well, December tariffs may be removed" video.

  1. Trump Lies, Again, and Again, and Again... “Saudi Arabia is paying for 100 percent of the cost, including the cost of our soldiers. The negotiation took a very short time — like, maybe, about 35 seconds.” The Truth: What caught our attention is that the president claims that Saudi Arabia will pay all of the costs — “100 percent” — of the deployment, including “the cost of our soldiers.” Some critics have charged that Trump is turning U.S. troops into mercenaries, available to the highest bidder. Since the president has a long history of inflating what he has supposedly negotiated, we thought we would investigate.

Notice that Trump claims he negotiated this deal in a “very short time — like, maybe, about 35 seconds.” In previous White Houses we have covered, such a stunning act of negotiation would be accompanied by readouts by presidential aides, eager to explain how such a coup came about.

But, in this case, just crickets from the White House, except for the bragging by the president himself. White House officials would not explain what Trump meant.
So, we checked with the Pentagon for more details on the supposed payment arrangement. Officials at the Defense Department deflected our inquiry, telling us to contact the State Department.
Hmmm, experience has taught us that this is a sign that any such deal is still under negotiation. Otherwise, the Pentagon would have been happy to discuss it.
Sure enough, we ended up with a carefully crafted statement from State that certainly reinforced that impression.
The core of the statement, attributed to a State Department spokesman, said: “While we will not comment on specific bilateral defense agreements, more broadly the United States encourages burden-sharing among partners in support of shared security interests, to include defense of the Arabian Gulf.”
Notice the “encourages burden-sharing” language. That certainly sounds like an aspiration, not a negotiated outcome. And the State Department won’t comment on a “specific bilateral defense agreement” even though the president is talking about it? That doesn’t make much sense.
We checked with the relevant committees in the House and the Senate — Defense, Foreign Affairs and Appropriations — and none could report an understanding of the president’s claim. The Saudi Embassy did not respond with an explanation, either.
When NBC News reported in July that U.S. troops were being dispatched to Prince Sultan Air Base, it quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying that “Saudi Arabia has already agreed to pay some of the costs associated with having U.S. personnel and assets there.”
“Some” is clearly much less than 100 percent.
Neither the Pentagon nor the State Department would comment on that language, each telling The Fact Checker to discuss it with the other agency.
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