BEIRUT, Lebanon — At a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wis., on Saturday, President Trump tore into Saudi Arabia, an important Middle Eastern ally, as yet another country giving the United States a bad deal.

He said that although the kingdom had spent $450 billion in the United States, Washington was still “subsidizing” the Saudi military. Mr. Trump said during the rally that he had complained about that to the Saudi monarch, King Salman, in a phone call.

“King!” Mr. Trump said he told the monarch. Using an expletive, he said, he griped that the United States was losing its shirt defending Saudi Arabia, “and you have a lot of money.”

It is highly unlikely that the call took place as Mr. Trump described, but in any case, the president appears to have mischaracterized the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

