refused to take action against saudi arabia despite the cia s high confidence assessment that the crown prince ordered the murder of the washington post journalist jamal khashoggi. trump defended his position for economic reasons, claiming the u.s. would lose a multibillion dollar arms deal and oil prices would spike. today trump doubled down on that message, tweeting oil prices getting lower, great, like a big tax cut for america and the world, enjoy. $54, was just $82. thank you to saudi arabia but let s go lower. okay, there s a lot to unpack there. the washington post fact checked that, writing, quote, trump s tweets ignored other factors driving the fall in oil prices such as concerns about global economic growth and a u.s. china trade war as well as a rise in u.s. oil production and u.s. exemptions to sanctions on iranian oil. the u.s. has substantially increased its domestic oil production over the last decade. take a look at that chart. that s because of the fracking
hardware and systems the saudis use. correct. and he has insisted that we ve sold them or they ve agreed to purchase $110 billion worth of arms from the u.s. they ve purchased 14.5 billion. so that s factually incorrect. he has suggested that they ve been creating jobs in the united states. we have much bigger trading partners than saudi arabia. they re very much a blip on the radar screen. it s true that they buy u.s. treasury bonds. they recycle their oil profits back into u.s. bonds on occasion. or u.s. real estate. but you know, canada, mexico, china, europe, japan all much, much bigger players. much bigger impact on the u.s. economy were we to have similar troubles with those nations. what you and i will pay at the pump for gasoline, by how much did the saudis dictate that price? almost zero. if you look at what s happening in the united states, brian, the fracking revolution for which the president takes credit, has been going on since 2008. at one juncture in february of 2
global economic growth and a u.s. china trade war as well as a rise in u.s. oil production and u.s. exemptions to sanctions on iranian oil. the u.s. has substantially increased its domestic oil production over the last decade. take a look at that chart. that s because of the fracking revolution. and last year only 49% of u.s. imports actually came from saudi arabia, according to the u.s. administration, 40% of american oil comes from canada. so saudi arabia is not the reason for our low oil prices, nor are they paying us the hundreds of billions of dollars or creating the hundreds of thousands of jobs as trump continues to claims. those numbers are lies. so why is trump continuing to defend the kingdom? today fred ryan attacked the president for his transactional approach to the presidency. writing, quote, a clear and dangerous message has been sent to tyrants around the world. flash enough money in front of the president of the united states and you can literally get
but you know, canada, mexico, china, europe, japan all much, much bigger players. much bigger impact on the u.s. economy were we to have similar troubles with those nations. what you and i will pay at the pump for gasoline, by how much did the saudis dictate that price? almost zero. if you look at what s happening in the united states, brian, the fracking revolution for which the president takes credit, has been going on since 2008. at one juncture in february of 2016 oil was as low as $26.05 a barrel. that was low enough to get frackers to stop because it was unprofitable to drill for oil in the united states at that point. the saudis and the russians, the rest of opec, drove the prices back up by cutting production. our production has since exploded to 12 million barrels a day. we produce more than saudi arabia. we produce more than russia. so we have the biggest increasing supply of oil. we have the biggest proven oil to fall inflation, fearing t onset of a rec warning come. so
the pump for gasoline, by how much did the saudis dictate that price? almost zero. if you look at what s happening in the united states, brian, the fracking revolution for which the president takes credit, has been going on since 2008. at one juncture in february of 2016 oil was as low as $26.05 a barrel. that was low enough to get frackers to stop because it was unprofitable to drill for oil in the united states at that point. the saudis and the russians, the rest of opec, drove the prices back up by cutting production. our production has since exploded to 12 million barrels a day. we produce more than saudi arabia. we produce more than russia. so we have the biggest increasing supply of oil. we have the biggest proven oil reserves underground in the world. we re the biggest player in the oil market. no place where we ve been since 1973. and with respect to imports, who sends us the most oil from outside this country? canada. we get 40% of our imports from canada. not saudi arabia.