Emir HadzikadunicOn the eve of the last US presidential election, I wrote in TRT World that Donald Trump might be the “lesser of two evils” on the genocide in Gaza and America’s endless wars.
I argued that, given the Biden administration’s record, it was hard to imagine a worse outcome for Palestinians. I was wrong, and I owe my readers an apology. He has proven himself not a lesser evil, but a master of deception.
Unlike previous US administrations, his approach is full of contradictions and confusion. He pressured Israel into accepting a ceasefire, then called for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
His envoy opened unprecedented talks with Hamas, only for Trump to give Israel a free hand to escalate its genocidal campaign. He was also the only president to send a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader offering negotiations, only to bomb the country a few months later.
Qatar betrayed
On May 13, Trump stood in Doha and lavished praise on Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Qatar’s “engineering marvels,” he declared, had made the country “a key diplomatic force on the world stage.” He went further: “We have been friends for a long time. This is an outstanding man, a great man. We will help each other; the United States is in a very strong position militarily.”
To many, Qatar was not just another Gulf stop on Trump’s Middle East tour. While Saudi Arabia and the UAE offered grand visions, Doha seemed to deliver immediacy, securing trillion-dollar deals and mediating a Gaza ceasefire.
The visit suggested Qatar’s evolution into a master of small-state diplomacy.
And yet, only weeks later, Israel bombed Doha, targeting Hamas leaders gathered to discuss a US-sponsored hostage-ceasefire proposal.
Trump admitted he had prior knowledge of the strike, despite US and Mossad officials reportedly assuring Doha just weeks earlier that Hamas figures would not be targeted on Qatari soil.
The contrast could not be sharper: public praise, private betrayal, the ultimate deception – an attack later condemned by the UN as a clear violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, a threat to regional peace, and an obstacle to international efforts to end the war in Gaza.
Illusions of distance from Netanyahu
Trump toured three wealthy Gulf nations in May, pointedly skipping Israel. The Washington Post reported that he and Netanyahu were no longer in direct contact, with one US official bluntly noting, “Trump doesn’t see the value in dealing with him anymore.
Key officials quickly followed suit, turning absence into performance.
Trump’s Defence Secretary cancelled a scheduled visit to Israel, while the US ambassador publicly declared that Washington was “under no obligation to coordinate regional decisions with the Israeli government”.
The omission fostered an illusion of distance, helping Trump secure $1.4 trillion in pledges from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, though it offered no leverage to halt the genocide in Gaza.
The illusion went further, paving the way for the release of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American and Israeli soldier held in Gaza for 19 months. Hamas freed him on May 13 as a goodwill gesture, persuaded by Trump’s projected image of seeking a ceasefire.
The sham negotiations for his release, led by Trump’s envoy Adam Boehler, had unfolded for weeks. Israeli officials were visibly furious at being excluded from direct talks, but their outrage, like Boehler’s insistence that the US was “not an agent of Israel”, was largely performative.
The curtain soon lifted, confirming that all US actions and statements before the release were merely calculated manoeuvres.
Within weeks, Netanyahu returned to the White House for the second time in 2025, an unprecedented move in US-Israeli history, highlighting their tightly coordinated and controversial partnership.
Indeed, other US presidents also closely coordinated with Israel, but none managed so many high-stakes moves in such a short time: convincing Iran that the US was serious about negotiations, persuading Hamas to take US offers seriously, securing cordial reception from Gulf countries, and assuring Qatar and other regional allies that they were safe.
Meanwhile, thousands more civilians were killed, and a UN-backed body declared famine in Gaza a weapon of war and a “man-made disaster.”
Iran misled
Iran also fell victim to Trump’s strategic cover-up and deception campaign.
He posed as a restrainer of Israel, promising diplomacy. After the first round of nuclear talks, the White House called them “very positive and constructive.”
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff assured Tehran of a path to resolve “differences through dialogue and diplomacy.” In Riyadh, Trump declared: “I am here today not merely to condemn the past chaos of Iran’s leaders but to offer them a new path, a much better path, for a far better and more hopeful future.”
Weeks later, as Iran prepared for the sixth round of talks with the US in Oman on June 15, it failed to anticipate imminent military action.
Two days before, Israel struck, killing Iran’s top military leaders and nuclear scientists. US warplanes soon joined the campaign, finishing what Israel could not.
Trump, triumphant, boasted that he had obliterated the Fordo nuclear site in a spectacular action.
True to himself, Trump was never interested in any deal that Israel, or his wealthiest and most influential pro-Israel donors in the US, such as Miriam Adelson, opposed.
Unlike Obama or Biden, he pursued hawkish policies toward Iran, including crippling sanctions, maximum pressure, and military action. Iranians, in turn, appeared misled by his rhetoric on isolationism and “ending endless wars”.
Yet when it came to Israel, it is now clear that Trump betrayed not only Iran but also his own ‘America First policy.
The domestic illusion
Trump also misled noble Americans across the political spectrum, fostering false impressions and unrealistic expectations. Conservatives clung to the hope that he would finally end America’s interventionist policies.
Muslim voters in Michigan believed his promise to stop the slaughter in Gaza. Some progressives even convinced themselves he couldn’t possibly be worse than Kamala Harris. He manipulated them all.
Trump delivered none of it. He escalated by striking Iran and enabled genocide in Gaza instead of stopping it.
Far from offering transformative leadership, he wields deception as a tool of statecraft, bending promises and perceptions to advance his own transactional agenda, serve the interests of his wealthy pro-Israel donors, and carry out complex operations that previous US administrations had never attempted, most prominently the military destruction of Iranian nuclear sites.
Trust in question
Donald Trump shifts positions, makes things up, and lies as a matter of habit. That much is conventional wisdom, a predictable feature of his style. What is less acknowledged, and far more dangerous for the states he targets, is how he wields deception as a deliberate tool, often with striking success.
So will the Emir of Qatar place his trust in Trump once more, after the president demanded that Netanyahu avoid targeting Qatar again?
Can Iranian leaders rely on him, after he emphatically dropped a four-letter curse word on camera, pressuring Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire and end the Israeli-Iranian conflict forever?
For those who still take his words at face value, the lesson is always the same: deception is the only deal Trump truly honours.
