Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera said Wednesday on NewsNation that President-elect Donald Trump “closed” the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement by “scaring the hell out of everybody.”
The Prime Minister of Qatar announced Wednesday that a temporary ceasefire deal had been reached between Israeli and Hamas leaders, which will reportedly halt hostilities for six weeks as both sides release hostages. On “NewsNation Now,” Rivera was asked about his thoughts on the deal, to which he responded that while he was “cautiously optimistic,” he hoped Trump and President Joe Biden wouldn’t fight over the “credit.”
“I think that what Biden and Trump should do, I would hope they would do, rather than fighting with each other over who gets credit, [they] would work together to present a united front to the other side,” Rivera said. “Although I say that I don’t follow my own example because I don’t think there’s any doubt that Trump’s involvement in this really got it past the first step. It finally — it closed the deal. This is the art of the deal. Trump closed the deal.”
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The timeframe for the deal is still undetermined, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told The New York Times on Wednesday that specifics of the plans are expected to be worked out throughout the night. Rivera went on to say that Trump has been intimidating the Middle East, questioning whether the right people had heard Trump’s threats.
“[He’s] just scaring the hell out of everybody involved. Whatever, you know, ‘I’m gonna bomb everything that moves. I’m gonna blockade Palestine and Israel. I’m gonna do whatever, but you can’t ever think you can guess because no one can second-guess Trump. But you better get this thing done,’” Rivera said.
“You don’t know whether somebody in Qatar or in Egypt or Saudi Arabia put the word out, ‘This guy is serious. Make a deal,’” Rivera added. “All I know is that Trump didn’t hurt [the deal] at all.”
In December 2024, Trump, in a statement on social media, warned Middle East leaders and terrorists that there will be “hell to pay” for those who perpetuate “atrocities against humanity.”
In response to the ceasefire announcement, Trump took to Truth Social, writing that the ceasefire “could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November.” However, on Wednesday, Biden said that the deal agreed upon was the same one brought forward in May, adding how he told his team to coordinate with Trump’s incoming administration.
Featured Image Credit: Mark Taylor from Rockville, USA
