Donald Trump has spent his entire political career telling anyone who will listen that he is the greatest dealmaker in the history of deals. He wrote a book about it. He built a brand on it. He got elected twice on it.
On Monday he jumped on a conference call with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Bahrain. His pitch was simple. Sign the Abraham Accords — his first-term normalization agreements between Arab nations and Israel — and the United States will finalize a peace deal with Iran. A two-for-one. Historic. Brilliant. Classic Trump.
Every country on the call either said no or said nothing.
Pakistan rejected it immediately and publicly. Saudi Arabia restated its longstanding position — it cannot normalize relations with Israel while Gaza is being bombed and Palestinians have no path to statehood. Qatar, which Israel actually bombed last September, also rejected it. According to reporting on the call, when Trump raised the Abraham Accords proposal an uncomfortable silence settled over the line.
He then posted about it on Truth Social anyway.
What the Abraham Accords Actually Are
To understand why this blew up so completely you need to understand what Trump is actually asking these countries to do.
The Abraham Accords are a series of diplomatic normalization agreements brokered by the Trump administration in 2020. The name comes from Abraham — the biblical patriarch claimed by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — chosen deliberately to signal a shared heritage across faiths.
The first agreements were signed in September 2020 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Sudan followed in October 2020. Morocco signed in December 2020. Kazakhstan joined more recently. The agreements established formal diplomatic relations — embassies, trade, travel, security cooperation — between Israel and these countries for the first time.
This was genuinely significant. Most Arab states had refused to formally recognize Israel since its founding in 1948, as a matter of solidarity with Palestinians who were displaced in the process. The Accords broke that decades-long diplomatic wall for a handful of countries.
But here is the critical context. Every country that signed the Accords was carefully chosen because the political cost was manageable. The UAE and Bahrain are small Gulf monarchies with strong economic ties to the US and limited domestic political opposition to manage. Morocco got something concrete in return — US recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara, a longstanding territorial dispute. Sudan was coming out of international isolation and needed the diplomatic cover. None of these countries share a border with Israel. None of them have the kind of street-level political pressure that makes normalization with Israel genuinely dangerous for a sitting government.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan are a completely different category. Saudi Arabia is the custodian of Mecca and Medina — the two holiest sites in Islam. Its legitimacy as a regional leader rests in part on its role as a defender of Muslim interests, including Palestinian ones. Jordan and Egypt already have peace treaties with Israel dating back decades and even they face significant domestic opposition when those relationships become visible. Pakistan has no direct stake in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but has a deeply religious domestic population for whom normalization with Israel would be politically explosive. Turkey under Erdogan has positioned itself as a champion of Palestinian rights as a matter of both conviction and political strategy.
Trump is asking all of these countries to take an enormous domestic political risk. And he is asking them to do it while Gaza is still being bombed.
The Art of the No Deal
Let’s be clear about what happened here. The self-described greatest dealmaker in history announced a major diplomatic initiative on social media — without first securing agreement from a single one of the parties involved. That is not dealmaking. That is a press release cosplaying as foreign policy.
Any competent negotiator knows the first rule — you do not announce the deal before you have the deal. You do not post your terms on Truth Social and expect Saudi Arabia to fall in line. You do not demand that Qatar recognize Israel two months after Israel bombed Qatar.
These are not advanced diplomatic concepts. They are the basics. And the man who claims to have mastered the art of the deal does not appear to know them.
The Accords Were Already Fragile
The Abraham Accords were Trump’s signature first-term foreign policy achievement. They were real — UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan formally recognized Israel, which was genuinely significant. But they were always limited. The countries that signed were smaller Gulf states with specific economic and security interests. The big prizes — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey — were never close to signing and everyone in the region knew it.
Gaza made it impossible. No Arab leader can publicly normalize with Israel while the images coming out of Gaza dominate every screen in the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia has a domestic population. Pakistan has a domestic population. These are not abstract diplomatic calculations — they are political survival calculations.
Trump either does not understand this or does not care. Neither answer is reassuring from someone negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.
The Dealmaker Myth
The pattern is always the same. Trump announces something historic. He declares victory. The details fall apart. His allies clean up the mess or quietly walk away from the wreckage.
The Iran deal is the most consequential foreign policy challenge of his second term. The Strait of Hormuz is still effectively closed. Oil prices are elevated. A genuine agreement that constrains Iran’s nuclear program and reopens shipping lanes would be a legitimate achievement.
Instead he is on Truth Social demanding that Pakistan recognize Israel as a precondition. Pakistan said no before the post was even cold.
The greatest dealmaker in history just got rejected by every country on the call. And then told everyone about it.
So here is the question. Is Trump incompetent? Or just stupid?