Whatever happens next, U.S. President Donald Trump has already done the impossible.
U.S. President Donald Trump has wrought a miracle in the Middle East.
Newspapers, social media, and the airwaves are full of good news today. Hostages, taken from Israel over two years ago, are being reunited with their families and friends.
The families of the hostages never gave up on their loved ones.
And neither did President Donald Trump.
Since taking office 10 months ago, the President and his team have worked tirelessly to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas. Finally, Trump’s efforts have borne great fruit.
The hostages are home at last.
“We gather on a day of profound joy, of soaring hope of renewed faith, and above all, a day to give our deepest thanks to the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” President Trump told assembled members of the Knesset in Israel. “After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families and it is glorious.”
“28 more precious loved ones are coming home, at last, to rest in this sacred soil for all of time,” President Trump added sadly. “And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace. A land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity.”
“This is not only the end of a war, this is the end of a age of terror and death and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God,” said Mr. Trump hopefully. “It’s the start of a grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel and all the nations of what will soon be a truly magnificent region. I believe that so strongly. This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East. I want to express my gratitude to a man of exceptional courage and patriotism whose partnership did so much to make this momentous day possible. You know who I’m talking about? There’s only one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“And let me also convey my tremendous appreciation for all of the nations of the Arab and Muslim world that came together to press Hamas to set the hostages free and to send them home,” Trump added. “We had a lot of help. We had a lot of help from a lot of people that you wouldn’t suspect, and I want to thank them very much for that. It’s an incredible triumph for Israel and the world to have all of these nations working together as partners in peace. And it’s pretty unusual for you to see that, but it happened in this case. This was a very unusual point in time, a brilliant point in time.”
In the wake of this miracle, another miracle has occurred: Progressive media outlets are giving Donald Trump credit.
“How much credit does President Trump deserve for this deal?” inquired CNN’s Dana Bash of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) over the weekend.
“I think he should get a lot of credit,” Sen. Kelly replied fairly. “I mean, this was his deal. He worked this out. He sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, you know, over to negotiate this, and it so far has gone well. Hopefully, the hostages get released here, might not be within 24 hours, but certainly, I think by Monday. And that’s progress, and now we’re going to have to see what happens next.”
“Yeah, you’re seeing that from both sides of the aisle, people praising this deal that President Trump accomplished,” said FOX News contributor Mollie Hemingway. “People, global leaders, also commenting on it. And it really is a challenging deal, so people want to make sure we get through all the steps.”
“We’ve got entities in that region who people are rightly nervous about whether this will all work out,” Hemingway added cautiously. “But it just is interesting that we so often have Presidents who seem to focus on wars that they’ve entered or how they’re waging war. And this President really seems to have a hunger for peace and brags about how many peace treaties he can get signed and how many peaceful arrangements can happen. And it’s a big difference.”
“But it’s impressive, what Trump has — did,” observed the New York Times’ David Brooks in conversation with Jonathan Capehart on Sunday. “First, he got together with the Saudis and the Qataris in New York during U.N. week and came up with this 20-point plan. And then he understood how to deal with Netanyahu. And I should say, in fairness, the Trump administration, both the first term and the second term, has been better on the Middle East than the Obama and Biden administration. There’s something about that region he sort of gets.”
Not everyone is as anxious to give credit where credit is due, at least as far as Donald Trump is concerned.
“Peace in Trump’s Time — Except Here,” groused an apparently disappointed Maureen Dowd mean-spiritedly for the New York Times.
“How much credit does Trump deserve for Gaza ‘peace’ deal?” grumped Ishaan Tharoor for The Washington Post in a similar fashion.
“Even Trump’s critics acknowledge the crucial role that the White House played in getting a ceasefire deal over the line,” admitted Tharoor. “That includes the personal efforts made by Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the interventions of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who ran Middle East policy in the first term. The pair shuttled around the capitals of the Middle East, forging close ties to the region’s power brokers, especially the Gulf monarchies.”
Elsewhere in the WP, opinion contributors were a bit more balanced.
“Yes, Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize,” Marc A. Thiessen claimed in the Washington Post on October 9, 2025, soon after the peace deal was announced. “His Gaza agreement, though still fragile, adds to an unprecedented peacemaking record.”
“Not only does Donald Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, but there has arguably never been an American president who deserved it more,” wrote Thiessen spiritedly.
Plenty of thrilled Israelis agree.
President Trump just finished a brief visit to Israel, where a grateful nation rolled out the red carpet.
Happy Israelis on social media are predicting a baby boom on the horizon. One of the most popular baby names in Israel right now?
Donald.
(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)