- President Donald Trump announced progress with a Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
- Trump also oversaw a peace agreement between Rwanda and Congo.
- Trump's Cabinet says this is evidence of "peace through strength."
Israeli outlets reported Thursday that Hamas leaders had signaled an openness to a ceasefire deal with Israel brokered by Trump administration envoys.
News of the potential 60-day ceasefire was announced by President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post on Tuesday stating that Israeli diplomats had “agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize” the deal.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE," the president wrote.
If successful, the ceasefire would be seen by some as another data point in favor of the Trump administration’s “peace through strength” approach to foreign policy that has yielded a string of recent results.
Trump oversees peace deals
On Friday, Trump mediated a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, marking an unprecedented step toward ending what the United Nations has dubbed “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.”
A few days earlier, Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel which both countries have so far continued to honor following Trump’s decision to drop around a dozen bombs on Iranian military sites in an effort to destroy its nuclear weapons program.
“Our man in the arena is the very best,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week at a Western Governors’ Association meeting. “We see this moving out across the world, working to secure world peace but through strength.”
The president’s campaign promise to end American involvement in “forever wars” has taken a number of different forms as global conflicts have escalated, ranging from Trump threatening to depose Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and decisions to pause weapon transfers to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the White House said it would halt the delivery of air defense systems and precision-guided missiles to Ukraine out of concerns from the Defense Department that U.S. stockpiles are running low.
Trump had a nearly one-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to The New York Times, where the leaders discussed Iran and Ukraine.
“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” Trump said, according to the Times.
Russian foreign policy officials told reporters that Putin called for diplomatic resolutions to Iran’s nuclear enrichment efforts, and reaffirmed his uncompromising view on the war in Ukraine, the Times reported.
Trump reportedly “raised the question of the quick end to the military action,” according to Russia’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov.
Critics weigh in on Trump’s foreign policy
Critics of the Trump administration have alleged that the president’s approach to Putin has been too generous while his interventions in the Middle East have risked exacerbating instability in the region.
Many of these criticisms focus on Trump’s unprecedented treatment of foreign policy procedures, sometimes undermining allies’ plans or his own advisers.
“His approach has sown confusion within his administration and distrust abroad,” wrote geostrategist Brahma Chellaney on Thursday. “Allies are left wondering whether Trump’s statements reflect official policy or personal whim, and even his own Cabinet is often in the dark.”
Top Republican members of Congress and State Department officials were caught off guard by Trump’s Tuesday decision to hold weapon shipments to Ukraine, Politico reported.
When asked about the goals of America’s bombing campaign in Iran on June 22, Vice President JD Vance said “we don’t want to achieve regime change.”
A few hours later Trump posted on Truth Social, “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???”
Some point to Trump’s live narration of military action against Iran as a potential source of frustration for Israel because it may have given Iran a chance to move enriched uranium from their nuclear sites before they were bombed.
Others, including former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien, have argued that the president’s willingness to make tough decisions to support American interests like he did in Iran will ultimately strengthen America’s standing on the world stage.
“President (Trump) is delivering a master class on how to conduct an America First foreign policy,” O’Brien wrote earlier this month. “(Trump) has gracefully given an enemy multiple chances to avoid war. But because he puts America First, Trump is never going to allow the regime that chanted “DEATH TO AMERICA” for 40 yrs, killed hundreds of our servicemen & threatened our leader to get a nuclear bomb."