The Art of the Non-Deal

Ending the war in Afghanistan has been one of Trump's priority since taking office, a signature accomplishment that could help him win re-election next year.  For nearly a year, Zalmay Khalilzad, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, had been engaged in talks with the Taliban to make that happen.

In recent weeks, it had been increasingly clear that the United States and the Taliban, after nine rounds of painstaking negotiations in Doha, Qatar, had ironed out most of the issues between them.  Khalilzad reported to the White House that the agreement document had been finalized “in principle.”

By the time Khalilzad was ready to leave Doha on September 1, he and his Taliban counterparts had finalized the text, initialed their copies and handed them to their Qatari hosts.  Khalilzad brought up the idea of a Taliban trip to Washington. Taliban leaders said they accepted the idea — as long as the visit came after the deal was announced.
That would become a fundamental dividing point contributing to the collapse of the talks.  Trump did not want the meeting to be a celebration of the deal; after staying out of the details of what has been a delicate effort in a complicated region-- Trump wanted to be the dealmaker who would put the final parts together himself, or at least be perceived to be.

In the days that followed, Trump came up with an even more remarkable idea — he would not only bring the Taliban to Washington, but to Camp David, the crown jewel of the American presidency. The leaders of a rugged militant organization deemed terrorists by the United States would be hosted in the mountain getaway used for presidents, prime ministers and kings just three days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the Afghan war.

Trumps demands (and what many believe is greed for a Nobel Prize) eventually led to the deal falling apart-- with Trump catching everyone off-guard by announcing the cancellation of the Camp David meeting via Twitter.