PNN – Trump’s claim about the existence of a dialogue process with Iran is neither a simple mistake nor a diplomatic misunderstanding. This claim continues his usual pattern: creating imaginary achievements and distorting reality.
Simultaneous with the presence of Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, at the White House, Donald Trump once again made a claim that the Iranian government immediately denied. Trump said, “I think Iran is very eager for an agreement, and we have initiated a process.” However, the spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs explicitly stated that “there is no negotiation process between Tehran and Washington,” and this claim lacks reality. But why does Trump openly lie?
Fake achievement-making in foreign policy
To understand Trump’s behavior, one must pay attention to his consistent pattern in recent years. During his first term, he repeatedly tried to produce achievements that did not exist by exaggerating and distorting reality. He spoke of a “historic peace on the Korean Peninsula,” while the entire process stopped after a few show visits. He claimed that the “Middle East wars have ended,” but no war ended, and some crises even intensified.
He presented the so-called Abraham Accords as a “major transformation,” while these agreements did not solve the fundamental problems of the region and mostly became symbolic. This behavioral pattern shows that Trump prefers to build political victories for himself through storytelling rather than relying on reality. He knows that a significant part of his voter base is less interested in fact-checking and more focused on the narrative of his strength. Within this framework, the claim of a dialogue with Iran helps him present an image of “controlling the game” and “personal authority.”
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This tendency has been reinforced as Trump’s domestic popularity in his second term has significantly declined from 47 percent to about 38 percent. This heavy drop has made him more in need than ever to create external victories and to use the tool of “diplomatic storytelling” to reproduce his credibility. Although he does not change reality, he reconstructs the narrative to provide a basis for maintaining his political position.
Trump’s psychological need to be seen and its role in narrative fabrication
Political psychology analyses of Trump show that he has a chronic need to be seen. He always expects to be at the center of news and for his name to be repeated daily in media headlines. For such an individual, absence from the attention cycle is considered a kind of psychological threat.
Within this framework, even the absence of a real event does not stop Trump. He has repeatedly shown that if news does not exist, he will create it himself. The claim of a dialogue with Iran is exactly in this logic. By raising this issue, he presents himself as the main actor in the Middle East and, in the view of U.S. domestic media, again appears as a player in global crises.
The timing of this claim is also not coincidental. Bin Salman’s presence at the White House created a suitable environment for Trump to once again make Iran the focus of attention and suggest in U.S. media that he is managing a key regional file. This way, he fills the void of real achievements and pretends to remain at the center of complex Middle East developments.
Managing regional allies
Another dimension of this claim is related to Trump’s regional calculations. After years of tension with Iran, Saudi Arabia is following a new path of de-escalation and no longer desires direct confrontation as before. In this context, Trump is concerned that Washington’s traditional allies may perceive that the U.S. has lost its central role in regional calculations. Therefore, by claiming that “Iran wants an agreement,” he sends the message that control over the Iran file remains in his hands and that Washington is still the main player in regional security. He wants to show that no process occurs without U.S. presence and that even Iran, under U.S. pressure, has necessarily returned to dialogue.
This message is particularly important for Bin Salman, as Saudi Arabia, while de-escalating with Iran, is concerned about the reduction of U.S. security commitments. By making this claim, Trump is effectively trying to assure that U.S. power remains decisive, even if in reality this power has declined.
Psychological pressure on Iran
Trump and his national security team are well aware that announcing the start of dialogue with Iran, especially when Tehran has denied it, can create a kind of psychological pressure. This method is not aimed at reaching a negotiation but at creating the perception of disagreement or indecision in Tehran. In Trump’s first term, this technique was observed repeatedly. He frequently spoke of “contacts from Iran” that never existed and were announced solely to create psychological pressure and strengthen the narrative of showing power. The purpose of this method is to put Iran in a position where it must respond and enter the media space to defend its stance.
This time too, after an incursion into Iranian territory, he has tried to imply that limited U.S. attacks have caused Iran to seek dialogue. This claim is made while field realities show that U.S. attacks have not significantly changed Iran’s regional position, which has led Trump to resort to narrative fabrication. He wants to show that his military pressure has yielded results, even if it has not. This method, in fact, acknowledges that he is unable to change the regional power balance and that the only remaining way for him is to create a power narrative.
Conclusion
Trump’s claim about the existence of a dialogue process with Iran is neither a simple mistake nor a diplomatic misunderstanding. This claim continues his usual pattern: creating imaginary achievements, distorting reality to compensate for foreign policy failures, managing public opinion in the U.S., keeping himself at the center of media attention, sending messages to regional allies, and applying psychological pressure on Iran.
In reality, with this claim, Trump covers his domestic and foreign weaknesses. He tries to imply that U.S. shows of power have worked, while Iran’s explicit denial and the field realities of the Middle East prove otherwise. This claim is not a reflection of reality but a reflection of Trump’s personal, political, and psychological need; a need that has forced him to invent a new story in the absence of any real contact to continue presenting himself as the main actor in the Iran crisis.