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BEIRUT, Lebanon — This summer, Saudi Arabia promised the Trump administration $100 million for American efforts to stabilize areas in Syria liberated from the Islamic State.

That money landed in American accounts on Tuesday, the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for discussions with the kingdom’s leaders about the fate of a missing Saudi dissident.

Securing the funding is a win for President Trump, who has complained about how much the United States spends abroad and has tried to get allies to foot more of the bill. But the timing of the money’s arrival raised eyebrows even among some of the bureaucrats whose programs will benefit from the influx of cash.

“The timing of this is no coincidence,” said an American official involved in Syria policy who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak to journalists. The official confirmed that the money arrived on Tuesday.
 


WASHINGTON — An American resident who writes for the Washington Post walks into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul and is never heard from again.

Here’s the reaction yesterday from America’s president, appearing to defend Saudi Arabia with the same playbook he used for Brett Kavanaugh: "Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent."

Here’s the United States’ secretary of state smiling with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and saying that the Saudis committed to conduct an investigation — for a death/disappearance that happened more than two weeks ago on October 2.

And here is the latest reporting suggesting that Jamal Khashoggi’s death/disappearance might have had ties to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince: “One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston and the United Nations,” theNew York Times writes. “Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince’s security detail. A fifth is a forensic doctor who holds senior positions in the Saudi Interior Ministry and medical establishment, a figure of such stature that he could be directed only by a high-ranking Saudi authority.”

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Yesterday, in response to accusations that Trump has been easy on Saudi Arabia due to his past business ties with the Saudis, the president tweeted: “For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!”

But here’s what Trump said a July 2015 rally, per CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski: “I like the Saudis; they are very nice. I make a lot of money with them. They buy all sorts of my stuff — all kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundreds of millions.”

The New York Daily News reported that Trump sold the 45th floor of Trump World Tower to Saudi Arabia’s kingdom in 2001 for $4.5 million, and a former Saudi crown price purchased Trump’s yachtfor $20 million in 1991.

And as the https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-president-trumps-hotel-in-new-york-revenue-went-up-this-spring--thanks-to-a-visit-from-big-spending-saudis/2018/08/03/58755392-9112-11e8-bcd5-9d911c784c38_story.html?utm_term=.94cdd0d051ae (Washington Post noted), the entourage of Saudi Arabia’s current crown prince stayed at Trump’s hotel in Manhattan, boosting that hotel’s revenue after two years of decline.
 
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