It's kind of a footnote to the horror of the Khashoggi affair, but Trump's claims about massive job creation from Saudi arms sales are another lie that reveals something about his true motives 1/ businessinsider.com/trump-reaction…
The number of jobs he says are created keeps rising -- from 40K, to 500K, to a million. All of that from a vague memorandum suggesting $110 billion over 10 years -- that is, $11 billion a year, a small number for America, even if true 2/
*Total* exports to Saudi Arabia -- arms sales are only a fraction -- are less than 0.1% of US GDP. 3/ 
US annual exports to China, which are endangered by Trump's trade war, are more than 10X the sums involved in the imaginary Saudi arms deal 4/
So the supposed economic payoff from dealing with a murderer is a mirage. Why does Trump keep talking about it? Unfortunately, the answer is obvious: he likes autocrats who murder journalists, and is looking for excuses to stay friendly with them 5/
