MAGA takes Gaza deal victory lap
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Donald Trump poses for a photo during a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Photo: Suzanne Plunkett via Getty Images
MAGA voices are heralding the newly minted ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza as a victory not just for President Trump, but for the America First cause.
Why it matters: For MAGA, Monday's historic images are the best argument yet against opponents who cast their movement as a medley of blundering isolationists incapable of getting a complex foreign policy win.
- MAGA's anti-establishment core leaves it with a chip on its shoulder, and its leaders have long worked to prove that the movement deserves the respect of Washington's power class.
- "The critics have been so wrong about this and Trump is so right: when warring parties and other stakeholders have shared future economic prosperity to look forward to, everyone has skin in the game to give peace a chance to succeed," said Matt Boyle, D.C. bureau chief for Breitbart News.
- To the movement, the deal was vintage Trump and emblematic of the America First philosophy: freewheeling dealmaking, coupled with sporadic threats and not hemmed in by historical alliances or enmity.
What they're saying: Steve Bannon told Axios the optics of Monday's peace summit undercut the idea that Trump has isolated America: "Every guy wanted to touch him, wanted to be in a shot with him."
- "From the biggest democratic progressives to military dictators and autocrats, and everyone in between wanted to be in a shot with Trump and promote a shot back home. That shows the power of America."
- "We're not isolationist, we're non-interventionist," Bannon added.
- Fred Fleitz, a vice chair at the America First Policy Institute, said Trump had shown he was neither a neocon nor an isolationist. "People who assert that he's an isolationist or his policies are isolationist, they haven't been paying attention."
Friction point: The MAGA movement was actually bitterly split over the Gaza war, with some figures like Bannon and Tucker Carlson railing against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and others like Charlie Kirk expressing more mild objections to Israeli policy.
- "Israel, whether it realizes it or not, has made itself the villain of the world in letting this thing go on so long. They have lost support among their dearest friends," conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly warned in July.
- Such comments from the pro-Trump right were particularly hard for Netanyahu to shake off, given his reliance on Trump's goodwill, and they were widely covered in the Israeli media.
- While likely not a decisive factor, eroding support from MAGA-world could have played some role in convincing Netanyahu to make a deal, and in spurring Trump to hold his feet to the fire.
Reality check: Long-term peace is hardly assured in Gaza, despite Trump's ebullient claims. There were also several diplomatic stumbles along the path to this deal.
- And while Trump's supporters claim he's unlocked a peacemaking playbook that can work in Ukraine and beyond, that's still to be proven.
The flipside: For his supporters, the Gaza deal marked the culmination of MAGA's years-long argument that its foreign policy doesn't shirk America's superpower responsibilities.
- You can flex America's muscles abroad, they argue, without opening the checkbook, sending in troops, or even enlisting "experts" to handle the diplomacy.
The bottom line: In the case of Israel, MAGA claims, Trump did more to arm and support Netanyahu than his predecessor — but also employed more effective pressure to get him to make peace.
- Podcaster Jack Posobiec put it this way on Monday: "He is the one who draws the line, that American interests have ended at this point."
