Fox News anchor Bret Baier began his Oct. 8 show saying that an Israel-Hamas deal appeared to be near. Before he signed off, he was reading President Donald Trump’s social media post that formally announced the agreement.
“This looks like a major breakthrough,” Baier said during the panel discussion that followed Trump’s announcement.
“I think some Democrats might say that real diplomacy happens in quiet and not necessarily on Truth Social and that this administration has oftentimes celebrated before things are inked,” said Yemisi Egbewole, a former chief of staff in President Joe Biden’s press office. “However, I do think there will be great bipartisan consensus on this. This is a win for both sides here.”
It was the beginning of an evening of celebratory programming on Fox, culminating with Trump’s appearance on the Sean Hannity show. But the response to what could be a historic breakthrough in longstanding geopolitical tensions has been more muted elsewhere, particularly in places where Trump is generally disliked.
The Bulwark, for example, while acknowledging “we are finally seeing real movement towards peace” and saying “The Trump administration deserves credit for helping to see this through,” headlined the piece “The Good Fences Trump’s Destroying.”
The Dispatch had no morning-after coverage of the deal at all; its lead articles were on Cold War statecraft and China, a profile of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and a piece critical of furniture tariffs.
On CNN, Jake Tapper appeared to be downplaying the significance of the deal, calling it essentially a ceasefire. (Kaitlan Collins clarified, pointing out that the release of hostages and prisoners is also an important component of this phase.)
Chris Hayes on MSNBC suggested that Trump was motivated by his desire for a Nobel Peace Prize and then, although he and his guest both laughed, said, “I really don’t mean that as a joke.”
The Economist, which endorsed Trump’s opponents in 2016, 2020 and 2024, said that the deal is “the best chance of creating lasting peace since the Oslo accords in the 1990s” but also said that it was a “triumph for Donald Trump’s transactional, bullying style of diplomacy.”
There are plenty of people in the Democratic Party who would rather see the war go on than Trump get credit for this, Buck Sexton, co-host of “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” told Megyn Kelly Thursday.
Let’s hope that’s just Trump-level hyperbole, but if the deal proves to be both successful and historic, Trump’s success will indeed be a hard pill for many to swallow, with or without a Nobel Prize.
The president has been called a threat to democracy so many times that it’s become a cliche. Some opponents of Trump have talked about being terrified by his re-election. Confronting the idea that he may have achieved something that his predecessors tried and could not do will be difficult for those who can only see Trump in villainous terms.
There have been exceptions, to be sure.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius told Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that Trump “will take a victory lap for sure over the next few days, but it’s deserved. There’s no way that I can see that this would have been done without Trump’s pressure in the final hours.”
Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, congratulated Trump on X, saying “enduring peace in the region is now possible.” Fetterman also said on Fox News that he would promote Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize if the president can also bring an end to the Ukraine-Russia war.
Other Democrats who have praised Trump today include Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Writing on X, Meghan McCain said you would have to be a “partisan psychopath” not to realize how significant this moment is. Recognizing it and saying it, however, are two different things, and given how early this is in the peace process, perhaps it’s prudent to keep the celebration in check.
But as Brett McGurk, a national security expert who worked under both Democrat and Republican presidents, said on CNN last night, “This is a momentous day. There’s not much good news in the world. This is great news.”