Trump Doesn’t Want To Lose Saudi Arabia Because It ‘Buys a Lot’

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump reiterated his support for Saudi Arabia at a "Make America Great Again" [MAGA] rally where he also described a negotiation tactic he used to get more money from the kingdom for the United States' military support.

During a rally with his supporters in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump indicated that he would remain a steadfast supporter of the Saudi government, largely due to Riyadh's purchases from US companies.

"They have nothing but cash, right?" he told the crowd. "They buy a lot from us, $450 billion they bought."

"You had people wanting to cut off Saudi Arabia ... I don't want to lose them," he said.

It's unclear where Trump drew the $450bn figure from. PolitiFact, a fact-checking website, has previously rated the claim as "Pants on Fire".

Trump then described a recent phone call with Saudi King Salman in which he demanded more money from the oil-rich nation in exchange for the military the US provides.

"We lose $4.5 billion on a country to defend them, and they're rich," Trump said.

"So I called them. I said: listen, no good. They were in a state of shock because they've never got a call like this in 25 years, right," he said as the crowd cheered.

Trump went on: "I said we're losing $4.5 billion every year, we can't do this anymore. This is crazy. He [King Salman] got very upset, angry, said this is not fair. I said, of course, this is fair. He said we'll give you $500 million more ... I said I want more. We argued. So they paid us more than $500 million for one phone call, it took me one call."

He said the king then asked him why he was calling, because "nobody had made such a call".

"That's because they were stupid!" Trump said.