110 Billion Weapons Sale to Saudis Has Jared Kushner’s Personal Touch -<br />By MARK LANDLER, ERIC SCHMITT and MATT APUZZOMAY 18, 2017<br />WASHINGTON — On the afternoon of May 1, President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, welcomed a high-level delegation of Saudis to a gilded reception room next door to the White House<br />and delivered a brisk pep talk: “Let’s get this done today.”<br />Mr. Kushner was referring to a $100 billion-plus arms deal<br />that the administration hoped to seal with Saudi Arabia in time to announce it during Mr. Trump’s visit to the kingdom this weekend.<br />They also said the arms sale would be only one element of Mr. Trump’s busy two-day stop in Saudi Arabia, which will also include a meeting with King Salman at the royal court, a conference with Persian Gulf allies, a broader summit meeting with the leaders of Muslim countries,<br />and a visit to a new center dedicated to combating terrorism and extremism.<br />Given that, and the big-ticket arms sale, most analysts and former officials predicted that Mr. Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia would be a success.<br />But former officials pointed out that President Barack Obama, whose arms sales to Saudi Arabia<br />totaled $115 billion, had already approved several of the weapons in the package.
