How Trump Used Leadership and Leverage to Forge a Gaza Peace Deal
- Trump leveraged relationships and pressure to secure a ceasefire and hostage returns.
- The deal exposed Hamas’ desperation and internal collapse while testing regional power balances.
- Bipartisan praise showed the diplomatic result, even if political fights at home continue.
- Transactional diplomacy and forceful posture mattered more than traditional statecraft.
President Trump walked into two enormous problems: a brutal, two-year war in Gaza and a domestic political fight that produced a government shutdown. The Gaza war began after Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages on October 7, 2023, and ending that conflict was always going to require tough, unapologetic negotiation. The domestic fight will be covered separately, but it colors how the administration communicates every foreign policy win.
Last week Hamas released twenty living hostages and seven deceased hostages while Israel freed about 2,000 prisoners, including 250 serving life terms. Reports say twenty-one deceased hostages remain unaccounted for, and Hamas claims some bodies could be under rubble from Israeli strikes. That ambiguity feels like a last-ditch, twisted leverage play by a group that has been militarily crushed.
Evidence of Gaza’s collapse is ugly and raw: rival factions are reportedly executing each other on the streets, an indicator of the breakdown of order inside Gaza. These are not the actions of a healthy resistance; they are the dying spasms of a terror network under pressure. That context matters when judging who had negotiating power at the table.
The deal was such a clear win that even usual critics offered grudging praise. Former President Biden (or someone on his behalf) on X, “The road to this deal was not easy…I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line.”
Former President Clinton : “President Trump and his administration, Qatar, and other regional actors deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached.” Clinton initiated the Oslo Accords in 1993 that created a framework for limited Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza.
New York Times: “Rarely has an American president…been met with such adulation abroad.” Even Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of the most partisan members of the Democrat caucus, to the President: “Congratulations to President Trump for the historic Gaza agreement…Now lets negotiate a political ceasefire on Capitol Hill.”
Some Democrats tried to deflect by saying an identical deal was available last year and blamed Prime Minister Netanyahu for rejecting it. But the regional calculus shifted after Trump authorized military strikes on Iran’s underground nuclear sites, which degraded Tehran’s sway and squeezed Hamas. That pressure, combined with quiet guarantees to Israel about future U.S. support and public criticism on humanitarian access, nudged Netanyahu to accept a way out.
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