RUSSIA/SAUDI ARABIA/STATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said Thursday [10-11-18] that Saudi Arabia would redirect its spending to U.S. rivals if he cut off arms sales over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, noting to reporters that the journalist is not a U.S. citizen…Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who had been living in exile in the United States and writing for The Washington Post, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. Khashoggi has been a vocal critic of the Saudi royal family, and reports citing Turkish intelligence suggest he was killed shortly after entering the consulate. Trump, despite mounting criticism that his administration is not doing enough to confront the Saudi government, has said he is trying to find out what happened to Khashoggi, though he has appeared unwilling to take punitive steps such as cutting off arms sales to the country. The State Department also said such steps would be ‘getting ahead’ of the local investigation.”
-Jesus Rodriguez and Matthew Choi, “Trump: Saudi Arabia would turn to Russia, China if U.S. ends arms sales over missing journalist,” Politico, October 11, 2018 4:14 pm