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Exactly how many jobs are at risk if arms sales with Saudi Arabia are cut off?
Was it 450,000 or 1 million jobs? Or did President Trump say 500,000 or 600,000?
Trump actually used all four figures in the span of six days. When it comes to business deals, Trump concedes he’s the kind of salesman who uses hyperbole here and exaggeration there. So the president isn’t a precise-numbers kind of guy, but this Saudi stuff is ridiculous.
First off, as we’ve reported, the $110 billion arms sale is still a work in progress. There appear to be few, if any, signed contracts. The specific items that are listed amount to $28 billion. (And those were negotiated by the Obama administration.) Even if the full $110 billion in sales went through, that wouldn’t amount to 450,000, 500,000, 600,000 or 1 million jobs. A very generous estimate would be 225,000 jobs and many of those would be in Saudi Arabia. Trump earned Four Pinocchios.
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