Donald Trump has been consistently firm ever since Election Day. He wants the war between Israel and Hamas to end, and that means that the hostages must be released.

His mantra, repeated to the press whenever they approach him, is that he expects the hostages to be released.

Trump’s #NewYear2025 message: "They better let the hostages come back soon." pic.twitter.com/g1cEa6cHKZ

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) January 1, 2025

This is more than just a mantra, this is the projection of leadership and a warning that the rules on the ground are about to change. The Biden administration has coddled Hamas and restrained Israel in any way that they could, right down to pushing a weapons embargo – because Joe Biden didn’t want to become Jimmy Carter, and risk trying to rescue the hostages who are American citizens.

Biden would pay lip service to the Americans still being held, and meet with the families, but his administration did not use any leverage against Hamas – like squeezing Qatar, for instance – and instead poured money into a stupid pier that did exactly nothing except get an American serviceman killed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken even admitted that Hamas could see the conflict between the Biden administration and Israel – and responded accordingly.

… The New York Times published an interview with outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Blinken said that Hamas has refused to agree to release the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire for two reasons.

In his words, “There have been two major impediments, and they both go to what drives Hamas. One has been whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages.

“The other thing that got Hamas to pull back was their belief, their hope that there would be a wider conflict, that Hezbollah would attack Israel, that Iran would attack Israel, that other actors would attack Israel, and that Israel would have its hands full and Hamas could continue what it was doing.”

Israel, for its part, has gone on to fight the broader war against Hezbollah and Iran with smashing success, and has largely ignored the Biden administration. After all, they know that a new sheriff will be in town soon as well.

Hamas had better be paying attention to everything that Donald Trump says. Deep down, I think Trump is hoping that Hamas will repeat what Iran did, and release hostages once there has been a change in administrations. Biden wanted to avoid being Carter, but Trump is putting himself in the position of Reagan.

To that end, Trump gave a press conference today at Mar-a-Lago with his new Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. Witkoff has already been involved in the hostage negotiations as part of the Trump transition team, and plans on returning to Qatar this week to continue working on a deal.

Witkoff’s trip is part of a last-minute effort by the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration to reach a deal to release hostages held by Hamas and establish a ceasefire in Gaza before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

At a press conference in Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Witkoff said negotiators were “making a lot of progress” on a deal.

“I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural, we’ll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” Witkoff said.

Trump, who Wikoff described as “exasperated” when it comes to the Gaza deal, said on Tuesday that he doesn’t want to say anything that could harm the negotiations but reiterated his threat.

“If these hostages aren’t back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East — it will not be good for Hamas or anybody else,” Trump said.

100 hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza, among them seven Americans. Roughly half of the hostages are believed to be still alive, according to Israeli intelligence, including three Americans.

Donald Trump does not sound “exasperated.” He sounds pissed off.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1876678580744450404

Trump’s Middle Eastern Envoy Steve Witkoff was just asked if they are sure there will be a Gaza hostage deal by January 20th.

Trump interrupts: “There better be.”

“If those hostages aren’t back by the time I get into office – ALL H*LL WILL BREAK OUT. It will not be good for Hamas. All H*ll will break out.”

“I’ve had mothers coming to me, fathers, crying.”

“I just say it very simply […] If the deal isn’t done before I take office, which is now 2 weeks – all h*ll will break out in the Middle East. OK?”

That, everyone, is a warning. And it isn’t directed at Israel. Is Hamas listening to the change in tone? That is not an old man standing on the edge of his own grave, tut-tutting them and holding back Israel. THAT is a president, delivering an ultimatum, and warning of the consequences. Trump doesn’t need to spell out the consequences in order for the warning to be effective. He just needs to put out there that there will BE consequences – even if the only thing he does is allow Israel to buy whatever weapons they want from us.

Just thirteen more days. Hamas knows it, Israel knows it, and Donald Trump knows it. Now we get to wait and see what happens next.

Featured image via Gage Skidmore on Flickr, cropped, CC BY-SA 2.0