Trump faces growing Senate resistance on Saudi arms deal

Source: Politico

As President Donald Trump aligns with Saudi Arabia amid a fresh dispute among Gulf nations, senators in both parties as soon as Thursday will try to block him from selling more than $500 million in offensive weapons to Riyadh.

The Senate bid to stop the Saudi arms sales — a small portion of what the White House claims will be a $110 billion package — is likely to fail. But the push to tie Trump's hands will probably find more support than a similar brushback pitch directed at President Barack Obama last year, as Democrats are far more united behind the proposal. Not only do Democrats have little reason to give Trump a win on any front, they're also stepping up their outcry over Saudi involvement in Yemen’s worsening civil war.

If backers of the effort to stop Trump's arms deals can do better than they did in the previous vote to bless Obama’s Saudi tank sales, they say they’ll send a message to the Saudi government that its warm ties to Trump won't stanch congressional concern over civilian casualties in Yemen.

The disapproval measure expected to see a vote Thursday, spearheaded by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), is expected to draw the majority of Democrats as well as a handful of Republicans.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/08/trump-senate-saudi-arabia-arms-239259