110 Billion Weapons Sale to Saudis Has Jared Kushner’s Personal Touch -
By MARK LANDLER, ERIC SCHMITT and MATT APUZZOMAY 18, 2017
WASHINGTON — On the afternoon of May 1, President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, welcomed a high-level delegation of Saudis to a gilded reception room next door to the White House
and delivered a brisk pep talk: “Let’s get this done today.”
Mr. Kushner was referring to a $100 billion-plus arms deal
that the administration hoped to seal with Saudi Arabia in time to announce it during Mr. Trump’s visit to the kingdom this weekend.
They also said the arms sale would be only one element of Mr. Trump’s busy two-day stop in Saudi Arabia, which will also include a meeting with King Salman at the royal court, a conference with Persian Gulf allies, a broader summit meeting with the leaders of Muslim countries,
and a visit to a new center dedicated to combating terrorism and extremism.
Given that, and the big-ticket arms sale, most analysts and former officials predicted that Mr. Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia would be a success.
But former officials pointed out that President Barack Obama, whose arms sales to Saudi Arabia
totaled $115 billion, had already approved several of the weapons in the package.
