The Energy Department’s announcement of a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia triggered confusion and anger inside the White House, prompting a last-minute stipulation that has cast uncertainty over the deal’s future, according to a new report.
The agreement, years in the making, would allow Saudi Arabia to build nuclear reactors using U.S. technology. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed it in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday alongside a bilateral safeguards agreement.
“Together, these two agreements lay the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation,” the Energy Department said in a news release.
However, President Donald Trump was unaware the deal was being announced, leading him and other staffers to become “livid,” according to CNN, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
Although the administration had been working on the agreement for months, the White House had asked the department not to unveil it on Wednesday, one source told the outlet. Wright proceeded with the announcement anyway.
Representatives for both the White House and Energy Department forcefully disputed that there was any misalignment.
“President Trump’s energy team is fully aligned, and always has been: the civil nuclear deal being brokered between the United States and Saudi Arabia is contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the successful Abraham Accords, which will help bring true peace to the Middle East,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told The Independent.
“This is fake news. The Department of Energy has closely coordinated the negotiations and then announcement of these agreements with the White House and the State Department,” a department spokesperson told The Independent. “Any suggestion otherwise is false. Both these agreements and the Abraham Accords achieve a common goal — delivering lasting peace through commerce, not conflict.”
The Republican president’s anger intensified after conservative media outlets began criticizing the deal, sources told CNN. A Fox News host questioned whether the agreement would include a requirement that Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, the deal forged during Trump’s first term that led several Arab states to normalize relations with Israel.
Experts on nonproliferation also expressed concern over the agreement’s enrichment provisions and its failure to commit to enhanced Additional Protocol safeguards.
Following heavy criticism, Trump on Thursday wrote on Truth Social that the deal would be “totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.” He added: “There will be no enrichment of material!”
The post surprised the Saudi officials, who had not signed on to the requirement of normalization, according to CNN.
But according to some Trump staffers, the deal—though signed—was not finalized because “letters required to be sent to Congress hadn’t gone out,” the outlet reported. The agreement is subject to congressional review, with a 90-day consideration period.
Sources close to the administration suspect the agreement, now in limbo, may have been subject to intervention by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters this week that, to her knowledge, Netanyahu and Trump had not spoken.
