As he climbed aboard Air Force One, President Donald Trump insisted that the first foreign trip of his second term had been a massive success for America.
The president boasted about the hundreds of billions of dollars in business he had conducted during his four-day visit to the Middle East.
But he did not get the deal he wanted the most.
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Nor, indeed, did he get his second choice.
In the end, Trump’s only big announcement was the birth of his grandson.
And Trump, the ultimate poker player, was left with the growing sense that he’d been played by his “old friend” Vladimir Putin.
After a week of being flattered and feted by a succession of Arab rulers thrilled at the opportunity to come in from the cold, the president felt the heat from Ukraine.
He’d promised to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict the day he moved into the White House, but more than 100 days in, it looks further away than ever, despite Trump’s claim on Friday that the two leaders would meet “as soon as we can set it up.”
When the White House initially “set up” the Saudi Arabia date in the diary, the president and his advisers expected it to be the venue for a superpower summit with the Russian leader.
Trump brazenly curried favor with Putin, talking about what great friends they were, how Russia should once again be welcomed into the G7 meetings of world leaders to make it the G8, and even suggesting the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the fault of Ukraine.
The art of the deal was sweet-talking Putin.
But all Trump’s hints and come-ons to the media about an impending ceasefire couldn’t hide the reality of his broken brokerage. The talks have gone sour. The bluffer has been bluffed.
Putin ensured the peace mission was doomed from the outset this week by sending a minion to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky as a not-so-veiled insult aimed at the Ukrainian president.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio kept at arm’s length from the planned talks in Turkey. Trump and Putin remained a world apart. It was left to Turkish mediators to pull their hair out trying to make some progress at a U-shaped table at the Dolmabahce Palace on Friday.
They failed. The first head-to-head talks in three years quickly spiraled into name-calling before ending altogether. The low-level leader of the delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, hadn’t even bothered to attend.
Trump then joined a call with Zelensky, Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to discuss the progress toward peace on Friday. It would have been a short call.
During his first tour abroad, the U.S. president had hoped to announce breakthroughs in stopping the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran.
Perhaps Iran has edged slightly closer to a deal to curtail its nuclear ambitions, but there was no grandstand exit for Trump as he prepared to leave.
Just a shout out to his baby grandson.
Then it was onto a 42-year-old Boeing. Trump’s eyes lit up briefly as he added that ”new ones are coming." That would include a $400 billion jumbo jet “gift” from Qatar.
Before flying from Abu Dhabi, Trump visited an interfaith center.
No doubt worshippers there pray daily for peace in the world.
Right now, Trump needs more than prayers to end the fighting. He needs a miracle.
