On: Trump sends Saudi civil nuclear agreement to Congress for review

26 August 2026

The papers say an agreement has been sent to Congress - classified, contingent, and carrying within it the means to split the atom. A bargain of three parts: power for Riyadh, recognition for Jerusalem, profit for someone whose name does not appear in any summary. The third part is always the largest.

I have held papers marked secret myself. I learned this much: what must be hidden from the people’s representatives is usually hidden from the people, and what is hidden from the people is rarely done for their benefit. A classified pact for a civilian program - why classify a thing that builds lights? We do not seal the plans for a plow.

The condition attached interests me more than the cargo. Normalization with Israel, they say, must come first. So the atom is made a hostage to diplomacy - leverage dressed as principle. But leverage cuts both ways. A nation that ties its weapons-adjacent ambitions to another’s concession has not renounced those ambitions; it has priced them. And when the price is paid, the ambition remains, now purchased and legitimate.

Congress will review it, we are told. Review is not consent. I would have them ask one question and refuse every evasion of it: can this agreement be enforced if the party across the table decides it is inconvenient? An agreement without enforcement is a hope with a signature attached. Hopes are fine things in churches; in treaties they are expensive.

I do not oppose commerce with kingdoms. I opposed only this: that we sell the fire and call ourselves prudent because we sold it slowly. The slow sale burns the same house.

Let them read the classified pages. Let them count what is enforceable and what is merely promised. Then let them vote as if the consequences will outlive the administration that signs it.

They will.