Trump would consider halting U.S. oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless...

Leading Republican candidate Donald Trump says he would consider stopping oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless they agree to provide troops to fight ISIS.

This sounds like he may actually be moving in a direction of letting the Middle East fight their own battles to a point.

What point we don't know.

He claims Saudi Arabia is heavily dependent on the U.S.

He made other comments as well as announced a couple more "advisors" he would hire.

Trump says NATO is outdated and says Russia is not longer as big a threat as it was when the Soviet Union existed.

Is Trump on the right track here?

It seems the more popular he gets, the more details he releases on his possible policies.

Trump would consider halting U.S. oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless it provides troops to fight ISIS

Donald Trump says if elected president, he would consider a freeze on buying oil from Saudi Arabia unless the Saudi government provides ground troops in the fight against the Islamic State.

“The answer is, probably yes,” Trump said when asked by the New York Times if he would halt U.S. oil purchases from the Middle East without military support from Arab countries in the region. “We protect countries, and take tremendous monetary hits on protecting countries. That would include Saudi Arabia, but it would include many other countries, as you know. We have, there’s a whole big list of them. We lose, everywhere. We lose monetarily, everywhere.

“And yet, without us, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t exist for very long,” the Republican frontrunner continued. “It would be, you know, a catastrophic failure without our protection.”

a reply to: xuenchen

Yes and how many before him have promised the ocean and given us just but a cup of it ?

It's all just spin in order to win votes

What politicians (yes Trump is now a politician too) say during the run ups to an election in order to win votes and what they actually do once they win are 2 different things

more proof that Trump has no idea:

1. How foreign policy works (yes we need to get away from Saud, but you need a plan)

2. How the economy works (Tarrifs, Now he wants to cut off our energy resources when we have no fallback? I thought he wanted to help the working class)

I thought this "business man" would know how to run the country? You cannot just halt oil coming in to the US from Saudi Arabia.

Yes we have our own oil here in the US and more than enough, but due to regulations and not being able to do what we need to with our own energy freedom due to various reasons that DO need to be explored.

Its not just something you can take a pen and paper and say "Yep were not taking no more oil, durhur"
That would effectively shut everything down here in the US and send our gas prices skyrocketing.

ONCE AGAIN, hurting the middle class and those in poverty, who NOW cant get to work because they cant afford to.

Trump shows his ignorance at every turn but his supporters keep marching on like good little torch bearers.

a reply to: xuenchen

Trump obviously doesn’t want to be president!


These ideas are like blasphemy to the American security deep state and Trump knows it.

At least we get oil from the Saudis for our money, What kind of troops does Israel have in this fight? Haven't they been getting billions for years?

This is the end of the innocence...Trump brings a great nation to its knees.

Actually, these are good ideas. The Ron Paul in Trump.
We don’t need NATO anymore.

But Trump doesn’t understand NATO is now a world police force they aint given up.

And Saudi has bribed all the American politicians with oil money to look the other way as they create the insanity of the jihadi menace

a reply to: xuenchen

Apparently he also replied affirmatively (not negatively? will this guy just say something definitive?) to the question about whether or not he'd engage in Twitter battles with foreign leaders:

The brash billionaire, who is quick to respond to his Republican rivals and their wives via tweets, was asked if he would engage in similar Twitter wars with world leaders.

“It’s a new way of communicating,” Trump replied. “It’s very effective. I’ve been very effective with it. I have, between that and Facebook, I have like 15 or 16 million followers. It’s a great way of communicating. Now, other people don’t like it, because they have 15 followers

Oh joy! Maybe he and Putin can do Wrestlemania appearances together too?

As for Saudi oil: All of the candidates are making a lot of promises they can't/won't keep. Welcome to political campaigning.

a reply to: CrazyWater

" Yes we have our own oil here in the US and more than enough, but due to regulations and not being able to do what we need to with our own energy freedom due to various reasons that DO need to be explored. "

Yes , we do have enough Oil , Coal , and Natural Gas to be Energy Independent from the Rest of the World . The Only thing Stopping US from doing that is Draconian EPA Regulations and a Obama Administration Hell Bent on Relying on " Green Energies " as our Main Source of Energy that could Never Fill the Needs the Country has right now . A President Trump would try and Change that to the point that U.S. Consumers of Energy would have Domestic Alternatives to the Countries False Dependence on Foreign Oil which Only Exists to back Treasury Bonds that are Drowning in Debt .

a reply to: xuenchen

Trump better watch what he says because his mouth is writing more checks than even he can cash!

" Trump better watch what he says because his mouth is writing more checks than even he can cash! "

Have you seen what the National Debt is Lately ? 19 Trillion and Counting . Someone Has to do Something or our Economy Will Collapse in the not to distant Future . I am sure Mr. Trump realizes that and has Advisers who can offer Plans to not Only Reduce the National Debt , but also Balance a Budget that both Parties in Washington seem to have no concerns about .

NATO undermines the UN. The UN being a spinoff of the league of nations to prevent massive military build up, unneeded alliances, and void of a forum for nations to talk no matter what. As we all know, military build up and alliances set the stage for the great War which subsequently resulted it WWII. The cold war never ended as long as an arms race and alliances still exist. Russia is not evil, they look out for their best interests as do we. After the fall of the iron curtain NATO expanded instead of consolidated. As a result Russia will naturally make moves to discourage further moves by us. I suspect should we ever have the catastrophe of not having an enemy our back pocket is Russia to keep the profitable war machine going.

Trump is a jackass but he has hit the nail on the head as far as the Saudi's go.

Saudi Arabia is directly responsible for numerous atrocities and terrorism. It is an oppressive and backward regime run by evil, evil men.

They are worse than the Nazi's ever were and their disgusting lack of basic respect for human life and boorish mentality of entitlement is a disgrace to the whole of humanity.

These idiots need to clean their house before we do it for them. SA has one of the biggest armies/air force on the planet and they are content to sit back and let the barbarians they have been enabling wreak havoc and death across the entire region.

To be realistic what should really happen is an invasion of Saudi Arabia and the complete removal of Wahhabism and the tyranny of the house of Saud. Watch all the problems in the Middle East miraculously disappear if that happened. For too long these criminals have happily basked in untouchabilty due to the oil they have. It would be a lot more productive and beneficial to the region in the long term if the worlds military resources were directed at taking control of Saudi Arabia and overthrowing it's corrupt and evil government instead of pissing around trying to destroy ISIS.

Get rid of the Saudi's firat, as I said, watch the other problems melt away as a result.

The only reason the world has put up with their crap all this time is because the people in charge are greedy and corrupt and the Saudi's have lots of oil and money. That's it. That's the only reason.

Look at the mess the world is in today. You can pretty much trace all of it back to Saudi Arabia. The fact they won't get off their arses to control a terrorist force threatening the entire region is very telling.

I agree with this. Saudi Arabia is one of our worst 'allies'.

Much of the Middle Eastern conflict is due to the Wahhabist crap they they spread, they should be forced to help quell it.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Right there with Turkey.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Yup. Those scumbags are also a major part of the problem.

Saudi is the reason oil prices have fallen. Us oil corporations tried to pressure them into reducing production so prices would go up and they said NO. One could say he is positioning so corporations win again at the expense of you and I public.

The US exports a lot of oil because the US corporations can make more money off of it by selling to other countries. Yet, we still buy oil from Saudi because they sell it cheaply. So for Trump to do what he said he would have to pass laws managing private corporations.

I thought people wanted less government interference yet so many support Trump who advocates more interference.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
Yet, we still buy oil from Saudi because they sell it cheaply.

Part of it is because it is what most of our refineries are geared to process.

Great idea when it's written on the back of a paper napkin.

Now try to put it into fruition with your ruling congress, foreign trade partners and diplomats, AND not crash the economy of the entire country at the same time.

It's fun to fantasize out your mouth without actually laying out any kind of real world step-by-step strategies on how you plan on actually achieving said fantasy.

Trump talks the talk. But beyond that, he's just showing how clueless he is when it comes to foreign policy procedures and macro economics.

a reply to: xuenchen

Having read the article here is the problem in a nut shell with what he is proposing:

Funny how when Obama is trying to move the USA to green energy, the republicans bulk and fought him every step of the way, even refusing to budge on many of the issues. Now the front runner is going to what, stop the shipments of oil, and the question is how will he do that? As president, he can not act on business, nor is there a way to separate out oil from one country to another. It is pumped out of the ground and then mixed and shipped to different facilities and then shipped to the USA. Unless he is planning on fighting people to drill more, it may be a waste of time, and then there would be the lawsuits and other problems he would face along the way.

If he does indeed stop the oil shipments, how many people remember the late 1970’s? You know the part of where there were long lines at the gas pumps, and even then it was limited? What do you think will happen to him, or his administration if the price of gas goes way up to the point where the country is having to pay a large amount of money for gas, what would be the countries response then to his idea? And if there is an oil shortage in the country, how does he expect for the USA to get the people to the locations to fight ISIS or anyone for that matter?

It seems as though Donald is going to take on the Islamic world, and think that there are no consequences for his actions, yet fails to see that by doing such, would only give those who do not like the USA far better credence to what they are saying and they would start to sway the populations against the USA. Currently there are many different groups that do not like the USA, how many more out of that region would join and then ultimately seek to strike the USA where it hurts the most?

Oh that will be rich, he pulls the USA out of Nato, and then what? It could be a diseaster waiting to happen, as many of those countries could then revoke all of the military bases in their countries, now what? Where does the USA go and what allies would be left for the USA to turn to?

His policies are dangerous.