Time magazine showers rare praise on Trump for Israel-Hamas peace deal with 'Triumph' cover story

WASHINGTON, DC: Time magazine just showered President Donald Trump with some rare praise.

The outlet unveiled its next cover featuring the US commander-in-chief staring confidently into the distance under the headline “His Triumph,” a nod to what it calls his biggest geopolitical win yet—brokering peace between Israel and Hamas.

The same magazine that’s spent years putting Trump on its covers for everything but peace deals called his latest move a potential “turning point for the Middle East.”

‘His Triumph’ hits newsstands

“The living Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been freed under the first phase of Donald Trump’s peace plan, alongside a Palestinian prisoner release,” Time wrote Monday on X. “The deal may become a signature achievement of Trump’s second term, and it could mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East.”

That marks a sharp departure from the magazine’s usual tone toward Trump. Though it has named him Person of the Year twice, its past covers often highlighted controversy over accomplishment.

Inside the story, Time focused on Trump’s long-held belief that everything can be negotiated. As the article put it, “It was his creed in business, then in politics: the conviction that every conflict, no matter how intractable, can be negotiated into submission.”

The piece also noted that Trump enlisted his longtime real estate friend–turned–envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to do much of the heavy lifting on the deal.

Deal of the Century?

“The deal could become a signature achievement of Trump’s second term—fulfilling his campaign vow to stop a war that has killed tens of thousands, while returning Israeli captives to their families and beginning the arduous work of rebuilding Gaza,” Time wrote.

“It could also mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East,” it added. “If the peace holds, the region could enter a new era defined less by conflict than by transformation, including the rebuilding of a post-Hamas Gaza and normalization of Israeli relations with Saudi Arabia.”

As part of the first phase, the last 20 living Israeli hostages were returned home early Monday, ending more than two years of captivity following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.

Four of the 28 bodies of deceased hostages were also handed over as Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in a massive swap.

Donald Trump’s rare media applause

The early stages of Trump’s peace deal are earning him something he’s rarely received from traditional media: praise.

When news broke that Israel and Hamas had accepted terms to end the Gaza war, several American journalists and commentators—many of them Trump skeptics—acknowledged the achievement.

“I hope … President Trump is showered with praise,” wrote longtime New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a in a piece titled “Give Trump the Nobel for Gaza, if He Does the Harder Parts to Come.”

Even The View’s Alyssa Farah Griffin gave Trump some grudging credit on air. “Listen, whether you like Trump or not, I think he, I think Steve Witkoff, and I think Jared Kushner do deserve credit for this deal,” she said Monday. “They personally met with Hamas. I used to believe we don’t negotiate with terrorists, but sometimes the only way to get peace is to sit down with the worst of them and try to end the bloodshed.”

Trump himself, of course, didn’t waste time framing the Gaza peace deal as part of his legacy. “It took us 3,000 years to get to this point,” he declared Monday, calling the peace plan only “the first step toward wider peace.”

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