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The $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that Trump touted on his first overseas trip was fake news. The deal doesn’t exist according to experts.

Bruce Reidel of The Brookings Institute wrote, “I’ve spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them “intended sales.” None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.”

Reidel points out that declining oil prices along with the Saudi war in Yemen mean that they don’t have the money to do such a large deal, and if it were real, Israel would demanding a deal to offset any military edge that might be gained by Saudi Arabia in the region. Any deal would also require Senate approval, there has been nothing sent to the Senate, so there is no deal.

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Trump took an interest in a potential deal someday and exaggerated it into an accomplishment. Nothing this president says can ever be taken at face value as fact. The United States has a unique problem that it has never faced to this degree in its history. The White House is the epicenter of a fake news epidemic.

Every administration has secrets, but that is not in the same universe as inventing a false reality.

The arms deal with Saudi Arabia is another fake story put out by a president who is detached from reality and accomplishing nothing.