Fact Checker - Trump's claim of jobs from Saudi deals grows by leaps and bounds

[DonViejo]

By Glenn Kessler

October 22 at 3:00 AM

“It’s $110 billion. I believe it’s the largest order ever made. It’s 450,000 jobs. It’s the best equipment in the world.”

— President Trump, in remarks to reporters, Oct. 13, 2018

“$110 billion in purchasing. It’s 500,000 jobs, American jobs. Everything’s made here.”

— Trump, in an interview with Trish Regan of Fox Business News, Oct. 16

“Who are we hurting? It’s 500,000 jobs. It’ll be ultimately $110 billion. It’s the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military.”

— Trump, in an interview with Stuart Varney of Fox Business News, Oct. 17

“I would prefer that we don’t use, as retribution, canceling $110 billion worth of work, which means 600,000 jobs.

— Trump, during a defense roundtable at Luke Air Force Base, Oct. 19

“So now if you’re talking about — that was $110 billion — you know, you’re talking about over a million jobs. You know, I’d rather keep the million jobs, and I’d rather find another solution.”

— Trump, in additional remarks to reporters after the roundtable, Oct. 19

President Trump is not very precise with numbers, but this is getting ridiculous. He gets citing U.S. jobs supposedly at risk if arms sales are cut off with Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But not only has the purported number of jobs from a highly tentative arms deal with the Saudis kept climbing day after day, but in the course of few minutes, he appeared to go from 600,000 jobs to 1 million.

To be fair, he appeared to be saying that all of the deals he struck in Saudi Arabia — which he valued at $450 billion — would create 1 million jobs. But that’s just as fanciful. (We had earlier documented that the commercial agreements announced after his 2017 trip to the kingdom were mostly smoke and mirrors, with many of the purported deals aimed at creating jobs in Saudi Arabia, not the United States.)

In his various statements, the president also claims that all of the arms-deal jobs being created would be in the United States, but that’s not true. Saudi officials have said that they will insist that 50 percent of the spending will be in Saudi Arabia, for Saudi jobs, if the tentative agreements are to go forward.

-snip-



Full article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/22/trumps-claim-jobs-saudi-deals-grows-by-leaps-bounds/?utm_term=.27dae64ef746

[riversedge]

1. Four Pinocchio's for Liar Trump.

[peekaloo]

2. Pinocchio should be sporting a Redwood forest.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. As always, Trump simply says whatever he wants to say,

and no one ever bothers to tell him he's wrong.

I'm simply curious as to how many jobs are even in the plants where the arms, planes, whatever the Saudis are buying, are made.