When the last 20 living hostages were freed from Gaza on October 13, it wasn't career diplomats who sealed the deal. It was Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed "deal-maker-in-chief."
As he told CNBC's Joe Kernen, "I'm different than other presidents. I'm a deal-maker. I've made deals all my life."
And this one was big: a 20-point Gaza peace framework backed by Israel, Western powers and key Muslim states — all committed to eliminating Hamas and sidelining the Palestinian Authority from Gaza for the foreseeable future.
Trump doesn't sweat the small print.
He wrote in "The Art of the Deal," "If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."
The 20-point Mideast Peace Plan is exactly that — big, bold, ambitious, and unapologetically transactional.
This is not incremental diplomacy.
Mideast analyst Seth Frantzman captures Trump's style, his "signature transactionalism and emphasis on personal relationships. . . . are helping, not hindering U.S. foreign policy."
Trump's credibility with Muslim leaders was built on results.
The 2020 Abraham Accords normalized ties between Israel and Muslim states, laying the groundwork for trust.
In May, on a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, he secured trillions of dollars in investments in U.S. manufacturing — including billions to buy
American-made aircraft and engines, and invest in AI ventures.
These weren't just economic wins; giving Gulf states access to the American economy gave Trump unique diplomatic leverage to pressure them to back his Gaza peace scheme —and they did.
There were no lectures on democracy — no finger-wagging about human rights.
Just deals. This is a region conditioned to transactional politics.
As American journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon explained, the economic carrot is a bigger incentive than the military stick. The difference is Trump's willingness to wield both.
President Trump favors personal diplomacy.
He believes that you get things done through private channels — over golf or lunch — with people who can close the deal.
On the sidelines of the September UN General Assembly gathering, he met privately with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi el-Sisi, and
Qatar's Emir Tamim al-Thani to secure support for his peace plan.
Years of phone calls, White House visits, and favors given had built goodwill.
When they called, he answered. When they needed something, he helped. "No matter how tough somebody is," he wrote in "Art of the Comeback," "they’ll remember support you've given or a favor . . . done." Trump lavished public praise on Muslim leaders, feeding their pride and deepening relationships.
Our president understands deal-making psychology: sustain momentum and sell inevitability. When Hamas said "Yes — but" to releasing all remaining living and deceased Israeli hostages, Trump emphasized the "Yes" and ignored the "but."
This kept momentum alive and made backtracking politically costly.
Trump controls the narrative.
He knows the power of framing the story first, owning it and using it to drive the deal home. By flooding the news with triumphalist headlines — "momentous . . . breakthrough hostages coming home" – before details were finalized and hostages returned, he made success feel inevitable, turning fragile commitments into binding outcomes.
When crises threaten progress, Trump pivots fast. Flexibility is key.
"What separates the winners from the losers," he wrote, "is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate."
When Israel's strike on Hamas leaders in Doha rattled Qatar and jeopardized their promise to pressure Hamas, Trump issued an executive order guaranteeing them U.S. protection and orchestrated an apology from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli journalist Amit Segal called it genius, "The Americans . . . converted that negative energy into fuel to propel negotiations to their goal."
To enlist Turkey's help with Hamas, Trump floated lifting U.S. sanctions so Ankara could buy coveted American F-35 jets. Turkey and Qatar ramped up pressure on Hamas to release all remaining living and deceased Israeli hostages and joined the peace plan.
Despite lifelong support for Israel, Trump deliberately projected neutrality, encouraging reluctant parties to engage without fear of unilateral pressure.
Simultaneously, he used unpredictability as leverage, keeping parties off balance and ensuring that momentum could not be stalled.
Manipulating optics to generate excitement and interest in being part of something "big" is classic Trump.
He called the Oct. 13 Egyptian summit "a once-in-a-lifetime" chance for peace and described the gathering as "probably the greatest assemblage of countries in terms of wealth and power maybe ever assembled."
Trump meticulously staged the event to project American power, a spectacle with flags and photo-ops of our president surrounded by Muslim and Western leaders.
Even France's Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Keir Starmer were eager to be seen as participating. "Life is a performance art," Trump wrote in "Think Like a Champion." And he performed.
Critics mock President Trump's deal-making diplomacy, but it delivered results: Hamas released all remaining living hostages, its primary leverage restraining Israel’s military. This was a stunning outcome few imagined possible.
Uncertainty surrounds phase two of Trump's deal: Will Hamas ultimately disarm?
Will Gaza be demilitarized? An international security force and civilian administration take shape? Reconstruction begin? Muslim-Israeli normalization broaden to include Saudi Arabia and others?
Major challenges lie ahead, but Trump's team is determined to see it through.
Trump's fusion of business techniques with statecraft turned deal-making into a bold vision. Egypt's el-Sisi called it "the last chance" for peace in the region. In the complex environment of the Mideast, that is quite an achievement. Trump would call it "historic."
And he'd be right.
Ziva Dahl is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center. Ziva writes and lectures about U.S.-Israel relations, U.S. foreign policy, Israel, Zionism, Antisemitism and BDS on college campuses. Her articles have appeared in such publications as The Hill, New York Daily News, New York Observer, The Washington Times, American Spectator, American Thinker and Jerusalem Post. Read Ziva Dahl's Reports — More Here.
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