Trump's new nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia could make ending his war with Iran even harder, foreign policy analyst Trita Parsi warned Wednesday, because it opens the door for Tehran's regional rival to enrich uranium, the very capability U.S. bombs are meant to strip from Iran.

The 30-year agreement, sent to Congress for review, would hand U.S. firms the lead role in building the kingdom's civilian nuclear program and, after a two-year study, could permit enrichment at a plant on Saudi soil operated by the United States. Critics note it does not require Riyadh to accept the Additional Protocol, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's most intrusive inspection regime. Enrichment is dual use: the same process that fuels a power reactor can, pushed further, yield the core of a bomb.

Critics have seized on the contradiction that Washington is at war to force zero enrichment on Iran, which insists its program is peaceful, while smoothing the path for the Saudis. Parsi delivered a blunt takedown.

"Washington is providing Riyadh a pathway to the bomb," even as it demands Iran give up enrichment entirely.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the administration's "hypocrisy is matched only by their recklessness," accusing it of letting Saudi Arabia pursue nuclear weapons technology "under the guise of preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warned the deal would "set off a nuclear race in the region."

The move also cuts against decades of policy aimed at denying Iran the very technology now on offer to Riyadh. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as a senator, even co-sponsored a 2019 bill that would have required Saudi Arabia to forgo enrichment.

Trump has insisted the alarm is overblown, shouting on Truth Social, "There will be no enrichment of material!" He added that the pact hinges on Riyadh normalizing ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords. Rubio, for his part, has insisted the deal has "safeguards in place."

The clash comes as the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, launched in late February, grinds on. Parsi and other analysts say the double standard hands Tehran a fresh grievance and a reason to walk away from talks, raising the odds the fighting drags on. Blocking the Saudi deal, meanwhile, would take a two-thirds vote in both chambers, a bar even critics concede is steep.

A report that President Donald Trump responded to a grave warning about the Iran war by pivoting to his White House ballroom project sparked disbelief Wednesday — including from one of his former MAGA allies.

Former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll reportedly met with Trump to warn that the spiraling war was making it impossible to achieve the administration’s foreign policy goals. But Trump changed the subject and began complaining about his ballroom, according to political analyst and writer Dominic Michael Tripi.

Driscoll later resigned, believing the administration was “doomed,” Tripi reported Wednesday. The new revelation quickly sparked a wave of stunned and angry reactions online.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told her followers that the exchange sounded familiar.

“Perfect example of almost every conversation I ever had with Trump,” Greene wrote on X. “Try to tell him something important, he doesn’t care, and changes the subject to some vanity topic he brags about.”

“Dan Driscoll did the right thing,” the former MAGA lawmaker added. “How many of us have to resign before America gets it?”

Activist and writer Shaun King also sounded the alarm.

“Do you see this? I swear Trump must have dementia,” King wrote on social media.

“Trump is mentally incapable of representing the people,” posted former MAGA supporter Trisha Hope, a 2024 RNC delegate from Texas. “He must be impeached and removed.”

Other social media users piled on.

“Elect a clown, make the country a circus,” one wrote on X.

Writer and podcaster Jay Caspian Kang summed up the new development: “It’s never not about the ballroom.”