Why Trump upended the Saudi nuclear deal: Media pressure and White House chaos

President Donald Trump went back on Thursday on his own administration's word, potentially blowing up a landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia barely a day after his own Energy Secretary had signed it. On July 22, the United States and Saudi Arabia finalised a landmark civil nuclear deal, granting Riyadh much of what it had long sought, including a potential route towards uranium enrichment. Less than 24 hours later, the president upended the deal entirely, declaring on social media that it was contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, a condition that had featured nowhere in the agreement.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, had signed the arrangement at the Energy Department in Washington, capping off an effort decades in the making. There was no mention of Israel, no demand for normalisation, nothing to suggest the deal hinged on regional diplomacy rather than energy cooperation. Yet by the next morning, Trump had declared that approval was "totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords."

The turnaround appears to have been driven less by strategic recalculation than by a mixture of bruised egos and media pressure. Trump was reportedly irritated that Wright had gone ahead with the announcement without properly briefing him. White House officials had apparently asked the Energy Department to hold off, but Wright pressed on regardless, even talking to Fox Business to promote the agreement. Because the necessary notifications had not yet gone to Congress, several of Trump's aides did not regard the deal as finalised at all, and the premature rollout left the president's inner circle fuming. The Energy Department, for its part, dismissed talk of a rift as "fake news," insisting it had coordinated closely with the White House throughout.

What seems to have tipped Trump into reversing course, though, was the reaction from his usual allies in conservative media. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board published a stinging critique on July 23, pointing out that the Biden administration had once tried to use nuclear cooperation as leverage to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords. The Journal said Trump was rewarding Riyadh without securing that same normalisation commitment. Fox News followed suit. In its early morning show, the channel voiced surprise that the deal had gone through without an Abraham Accords commitment attached. Minutes later, Trump posted his ultimatum on Truth Social, effectively reviving the very condition Biden-era negotiators had once pursued before the October 7 attacks derailed that effort.

Trump's post also sowed confusion over the technical substance of the agreement itself. He insisted there would be "no enrichment of material" and that the deal "pertains only to non-military use," a claim that goes against what had been signed the day before. Officials familiar with the arrangement say it included a two-year study period to assess whether Saudi Arabia could enrich its own nuclear fuel economically. The agreement also appears to have stopped short of requiring Riyadh to sign the IAEA's Additional Protocol, which would subject the kingdom to more intrusive inspections of suspected covert sites. That omission alarmed nonproliferation experts, given that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously said Saudi Arabia would pursue its own bomb "as soon as possible" should Iran acquire one. In ruling out enrichment altogether, Trump undercut the very provision the Saudis had fought hardest to secure.

The reversal blindsided Saudi officials, who had regarded the signing as a genuine diplomatic win. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the president as the "final dealmaker" and maintained he had raised the Abraham Accords condition with Saudi leaders on previous occasions. "If they don't join the Abraham Accords, the deal is off," she said. She conceded, however, that Trump had not actually spoken to Saudi leadership around the time of his announcement.

The new condition leaves the agreement in limbo, not least because Saudi Arabia has consistently ruled out recognising Israel without progress towards Palestinian statehood, a prospect Benjamin Netanyahu firmly opposes. Netanyahu welcomed Trump's demand as vindication of his "peace through strength" approach, though Israeli security analysts were less convinced.

In the space of a single day, a nuclear partnership years in the making came apart in public. Undone by poor internal coordination, a severe media backlash and the president's typical impulsiveness, the deal now hangs on a peace settlement that neither Riyadh nor Jerusalem currently appears willing to make.