The president announced the reversal on Truth Social, writing that he had canceled the trip because of “too much time wasted on traveling” and what he described as “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership.
“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” Trump wrote. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” In a separate statement provided by the White House, the president elaborated that he told his representatives as they were preparing to depart, “Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there.”
The sudden cancellation marks a sharp reversal for the administration’s diplomatic push and underscores Trump’s well-documented impatience with negotiations that do not produce swift results. The trip to Islamabad had been assembled rapidly, with the White House on Friday signaling that Witkoff and Kushner would travel to Pakistan for indirect talks with Iranian officials, using Islamabad as an intermediary. Vice President JD Vance was expected to join if the discussions showed signs of progress, weeks after an unsuccessful trip to Pakistan himself.
The decision came after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and his delegation left Islamabad following their arrival Friday for talks with Pakistani leaders. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday that “we’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” a statement that now appears at odds with the president’s assessment.
Diplomatic whiplash and a long road ahead
The whiplash surrounding the administration’s approach reflects the chaotic nature of the diplomatic push in recent days. Trump’s cancellation on Saturday signals that a deal with Iran remains far from reach, despite the administration’s earlier optimism. The president’s insistence that the United States holds “all the cards” and his demand that Tehran simply “call” if it wants to talk suggests a preference for direct, high-level engagement over the kind of painstaking, indirect shuttle diplomacy that the Pakistan trip was designed to facilitate.
The episode also highlights the volatile role of Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior adviser, who has been involved in Middle East diplomacy throughout Trump’s presidency. The planned mission to Pakistan was seen as an opportunity for Kushner to reprise his role as a back-channel negotiator, but the president’s last-minute intervention undercut that effort before it could begin.
For now, the path to any potential U.S.-Iran dialogue remains uncertain, with the president’s public frustration and Tehran’s internal divisions creating a formidable obstacle to even preliminary talks. As Trump put it, “They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
