Trump raises economic concerns over halting Saudi arms sales

(AP) – President Donald Trump says the U.S. is looking into the fate of a Saudi writer missing and feared murdered. But Trump expressed reservations over calls to withhold further U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, warning that such a move “would be hurting us.”

Decades of close U.S.-Saudi relations, intensified under Trump, appear in jeopardy by the suggestion of a carefully plotted murder of a government critic, Jamal Khashoggi. He disappeared a week ago after entering a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

In an interview with “Fox News Night,” Trump linked the positive U.S. economy in part to defense systems that he said everyone wants. He called stepping back from the arms sales to the Saudis “a very, very tough pill to swallow for our country.”