President Trump threw a wrench into his own nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia this week — and he did it on purpose.
On Wednesday, the Energy Department announced with some fanfare that Washington and Riyadh had finalized an agreement to share American nuclear know-how with the Saudis for civilian use. Energy Secretary Chris Wright signed it alongside his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz, and the statements coming out of the department made it sound like a done deal, full steam ahead, nothing left to see here.
Then Thursday, Trump got on Truth Social and added a catch nobody in Washington saw coming, or at least nobody said out loud: the deal is happening, he wrote, but only if the Saudis join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel. No enrichment, he was careful to add — this is peaceful stuff, the same arrangement Iran and the UAE already have. But the price of admission just went up, and it went up by a lot.
President Trump approves a landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, giving American companies a major role in developing nuclear infrastructure overseas.
In a Truth social post this morning, Trump explained the U.S. will help Saudi Arabia develop civilian nuclear energy, but… pic.twitter.com/9a80v7eBV3
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 23, 2026
Here’s why that’s a bigger deal than it might sound. The Saudis, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have said for years that they won’t sign on to the Accords without real movement toward a Palestinian state — not vague promises, but something concrete. That’s been the sticking point all along, the one nobody in Riyadh has budged on. Trump just tied it directly to a nuclear agreement the Saudis clearly want.
It’s worth remembering the relationship between the two countries has been warming for a while now, in ways that don’t make headlines but matter. The Saudis opened their airspace to Israeli jets back in 2022, ending a ban that had stood for decades. There’s been quiet coordination on Iran. Reports have circulated for years that Saudi help played a role in shooting down missiles headed for Israel. The distance between these two countries has been closing — just not all the way, and not officially.
So the question now is whether Trump’s ultimatum speeds that up or grinds it to a halt. Does MBS see an opening he can finally sell at home, or does he see an American president raising the ante on a deal that was supposed to be simple? The Energy Department’s own announcement didn’t mention Trump’s condition at all — which tells you this came from the president himself, not from the diplomats who spent months getting the fine print right.
Nobody knows yet how Riyadh answers. But the outline of the trade is now sitting in plain view: nuclear technology for normalization. Whether that turns into a historic deal or a standoff depends on whether the Saudis are ready to make the move they’ve resisted making for years.
Breaking News: President Trump said the nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia hinged on its willingness to normalize relations with Israel. https://t.co/X1Qr2k7lnd
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 23, 2026
