FLIP, BUT ALSO FLOP

Trump Nukes His Own Deal Before the Ink Is Even Dry

The White House spent Wednesday signing a nuclear pact and Thursday revising its terms.

Donald Trump is scrabbling to bolt demands back onto a nuclear deal one day after his administration signed a version of the pact widely slammed for dropping them entirely.

Washington’s price for helping Saudi Arabia build nuclear reactors was, for years, that the kingdom agree to buy its fuel on the open market and that it recognize the state of Israel. But Trump, 80, appeared this week to have axed them altogether.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, 61, and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the cooperation deal on Wednesday. The announcement did not mention Israel, while nonproliferation experts told the Associated Press that it lacks any guardrails against Saudi Arabia enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels.

By Thursday morning, both provisions seemed to have snuck back into the deal—at least, according to the president. The pact is “totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that “there will be no enrichment of material!”

Neither claim can be checked because the White House has not actually released the text of the deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 55, declined to discuss specifics on Wednesday, saying only that the administration would work with lawmakers to formalize the agreement, ABC reports.

Trump has faced intense backlash as critics warn the reported terms of the pact secure no concessions for the U.S. and could pave the way for a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. It comes after the president launched his war with Iran in February with the express goal of curbing nuclear weapons in the region.

Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s 40-year-old de facto ruler, has made clear in the past that the kingdom would build a bomb “without a doubt” if Iran ever obtained nuclear strike capabilities. Trump has clashed with the prince over the chaos caused by his conflict with Tehran, and the New York Times reports that Wednesday’s no-strings deal was a bid to smooth things over.

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The newspaper adds that the agreement is a far cry from the 2009 U.S. deal with the United Arab Emirates, which required the UAE to forgo any right to enrich its own uranium and remains widely considered the “gold standard for nuclear nonproliferation.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

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