President Donald Trump offered a full throated embrace of the Saudi kingdom in a befuddling official statement on Tuesday that highlighted the importance of a $450 billion deal between the U.S. and the Saudis (which doesn’t officially exist yet) and oscillated on whether the Saudi king and crown prince were aware of the brutal murder of a Washington Post writer before it was carried out.

With a tone that indicates the statement was likely penned by Trump himself — complete with eight exclamation marks — Trump harped on the dangers of the world, justifying the Saudi assault of Yemen by bashing the Iranian government and its support of terror groups. Trump then jumped to the arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, which he has cited as justification for continued positive relations with the kingdom since before the U.S. knew Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi — who was a permanent resident of Virginia — was tortured, murdered and dismembered.

Trump then called the crimes against Khashoggi “terrible” as he laid out what actions the U.S. has taken to punish those who participated in the torture and murder — like sanctions against 17 Saudis — before appearing to side with Saudi officials who have tagged Khashoggi as an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. While Khashoggi was widely known as a Saudi dissident, he did not identify as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, though he did sympathize with and was friends with people who aligned with the movement, as the Brookings Institute pointed out.

In his statement, Trump was quick to clarify that Khashoggi’s political leanings did not impact his decision to bear hug the Saudis after the “unacceptable and horrible crime,” but as details of the murder unraveled in the media in recent weeks, Trump regularly raised Khashoggi’s immigration status while commenting on the writer’s death. Khashoggi was not a U.S. citizen, but was a permanent resident.

In public statements, Trump has suggested that it was crucial to know whether the Saudi king or crown prince were aware of plans to kidnap and murder the Washington Post writer, but he obliterated that notion in the statement.

“Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” he said.

While he attempted to paint a portrait of a united front against terrorism with the Saudis, Israel and other countries around the world, he both began and ended the statement with a nationalist message: “America first!”

Read the full statement from President Trump below: