Self-dealing and further destabilization of global order have become regular facets of Trump’s second regime. But the case of approving Saudi Arabia‘s nuclear program—signed in mid July—comes with an added contradiction: As Trump’s associates continue to engage in a bombing campaign against Iran to “stop” the country from developing a nuclear program, a different country in Middle East got a formal signing ceremony for a Trump-approved effort.
From a multiple-bylined story at NBC News, the official announcement from Energy Department‘s Chris Wright included lots of grandiose claims and safety assurances.
The U.S. signed a landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced on X, formerly Twitter.
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In the announcement, Wright added: “Rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world’s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States.”
Earlier, a senior administration official told NBC News that Trump had approved the deal.
The U.S. will support creating a nuclear power program and American companies will build the program in the kingdom under the agreement, said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak about the deal before its official announcement.
Garrett Haake, Chantal Da Silva, Steve Kopack, Dan De Luce and Abigail Williams for NBC News
NBC mentions how the Saudi Crown Prince threatened to obtain a nuclear bomb if Iran was able to do the same—without adding that Mohammed bin Salman was credibly fingered as the orchestrator of murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist (and legal U.S. resident) Jamal Khashoggi.
Any deal without appropriate guardrails would be ‘concerning from a proliferation perspective,’ said Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow with the proliferation and nuclear policy program at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
‘Any country, period, but particularly countries of proliferation concern have to be really, really robust on their nonproliferation provisions,’ she added.
And Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has warned that the kingdom would try to obtain a nuclear weapon if Iran were also able to, Dolzikova noted.
Garrett Haake, Chantal Da Silva, Steve Kopack, Dan De Luce and Abigail Williams for NBC News
Trump is famous for rejecting multiple findings from U.S. intel agencies, and the same rule applies here: he dismissed assertions last June from Tulsi Gabbard that Iran wasn’t developing a bomb. She repeated the same declarations before congress as well.
Meanwhile, the sprawling deal gifted to the Kingdom comes with quite a few “parallel” efforts that smack of corruption and access exploitation. As Dan Alexander reported for Fortune magazine, Trump’s associates were (while nuclear talks continued) scheming to expand lucrative-licensing deals for properties there.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Of course Jared Kushner famously pocketed that $2B for his “wealth” “fund,” but we should really backdate Trump Crime Family’s official op to April 2017, when Jared’s daddy Charles Kushner huddled with Qatar’s finance minister, Ali Sharif Al Emadi, to discuss “financing.” The corrupt piggybacking has continued apace since that moment (likely before).
I often take time to lampoon timid-U.S. press in these Footnotes, and this entry is no exception. As Judd Legum reports for Popular Information, legacy press largely omitted Kushner’s role in these talks: like a lurking pickpocket in a back alley, Kushner was essentially granted anonymity by the press while squirreling away funds (and additional influence) for himself and his clan.
Nearly all major media coverage of the US-Saudi nuclear agreement ignored Kushner’s financial conflicts — including articles by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, AP, and CNN… Popular Information could only identify one article on the deal from a prominent outlet mentioning Kushner. Mediaite briefly discusses the funding that Kushner’s private equity firm has received from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. (A Forbes piece focused on the Trump Organization’s financial ties to Saudi Arabia, but did not mention Kushner.)
via Judd Legum, Popular Information
Marcy Wheeler at Emptywheel echoed Legum’s reporting, with the added context that the Iran war has hurt Saudis financially—limiting the Kingdom’s ability to grease Donald’s palms. Both Judd and Marcy’s reporting is worth absorbing and they are linked below.
Don Junior and Eric are also getting in on the nuclear grift, per New York Times, through part ownership of Quantum Leap Energy.
Final point: the “origin story” of Donny helping Saudis with nuclear could have links to the Khashoggi murder itself that media also hasn’t investigated. (That alone is a crime against journalism as Jamal was one of their own.) Consider the timeline as a reminder, and see the CNBC link for more:
• Oct. 2, 2018: Khashoggi murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
• Oct. 18, 2018 (16 days later): Trump goons grant a Part 810 nuclear technology authorization, one of two granted after the killing
• Feb. 18, 2019: A second authorization followed, three months after the CIA concluded MBS ordered the killing
One of my go-to rules is “There are are no Trump coincidences, only unprosecuted felonies.” Granting that authorization so soon after the MBS op in Turkey could be sloppy decisionmaking; a coincidence of timing; or a “tell” that those two events are linked in ways we have yet to learn.
At the very least, though, that interesting timeline was foreshadowing for the “deal” we are now digesting today.
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