As President Donald Trump celebrated what he called a “tremendous” first day in Saudi Arabia, his onetime campaign adviser and longtime confidante Roger Stone expressed nothing but aversion for the Gulf nation and parts of the President’s trip.
In a litany of tweets, Stone berated Saudi Arabia as “the enemy” and slammed Trump for accepting the Order of Abdulaziz from King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
“Candidly this makes me want to puke,” he wrote.
The order, the nation’s highest civilian honor, was also bestowed upon former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Stone suggested, however, that Trump accepted the award only at the suggestion of his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, although he doesn’t say why he made the assertion.
Stone’s tweets come as Trump has tried to distance himself from his controversial former campaign adviser. A source confirmed to CNN that Stone was among those who advised the President to fire former FBI Director James Comey, which Politico first reported.
Stone, who is being investigated by the FBI as part of its investigation into contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians, spoke to Trump after Comey testified at a hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this month, the source said.
Trump pushed back against these reports, denouncing them as “fake news” and tweeting that he had “not spoken to Roger in a long time.”
A White House spokesperson reiterated the President’s assertion that he has not spoken to Stone in a while, adding, “The President has not spoken to Roger Stone in many months and any reports suggesting otherwise are categorically untrue.”
In a tweet, Stone, too, pushed back on reports that he “urged” Trump to fire Comey, but added that he supported the decision “100%.” He contradicted the President’s claim, however, that the two had not talked “in many months,” telling ABC’s “The View” last week that they had spoken “very recently.”
CNN’s Gregory Krieg, Stephen Collinson, Jeff Zeleny and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.