JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 07: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after stepping off Air Force One on September 7, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. President Trump traveled to New York... JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 07: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after stepping off Air Force One on September 7, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. President Trump traveled to New York to attend the U.S. Open men’s singles final. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) MORE LESS

Has Trump brought peace to Gaza? Ended the war and cycle of killing that has now been going on for two years? I’ve had a number of TPM Readers ask me different versions of this. And in those questions is a lurking undercurrent, sometimes more or less explicit, of “does this malevolent clown actually get credit for this?” I wanted to address this question. And my answer is that this is perhaps the first time when Trump’s frequent and degenerate boast — I alone can do it — has a very real element of truth.

I don’t think Trump expended any great amount of energy over this and I don’t think he really cares greatly about any of the people on either side of the conflict. Let’s remember that a few months ago he backed a plan to “voluntarily” depopulate Gaza and remake it as a series of mediterranean resorts, sort of Monaco only 150 times the size.

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