Trump's taste for diplomatic triumph could silence Putin

When outgoing president Joe Biden was asked if he or Donald Trump deserved credit for the Gaza ceasefire deal struck in Qatar, he shot back: "Is that a joke?" It wasn't. Trump's claim of having secured the "EPIC" deal was comic, but his contribution was real.

- SAM KILEY

Biden’s team worked in tandem with Trump’s incoming administration – and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff – to deliver the agreement which had taken many months to thrash out.

It was no accident that it was struck in the dying days of the Biden years, less than a week before Trump was due to move back into the White House. Israel’s prime minister knew that involving Trump would set him up to warm relations with the 47th president.

Hamas knows he’ll always be an enemy, but one who might actually make good on a threat to “rain hell” on the movement if no deal was made.

Trump is often dismissed as a toddler prone to tantrums in the world of foreign affairs. But his record as 45th president shows his brand of “peace through strength”, and “America first”, plus a reputation for unpredictability, was better than the mess that Biden is leaving behind.

Biden’s term has been marked by a failure to give Ukraine enough military support to drive out Russian forces, but enough to keep on bleeding.

He failed, if he ever wanted, to reign in Israel’s massive bombardment of Gaza using American weapons – which has resulted in war crimes charges against Israel that may yet dog America, too. Under Biden, Iran was able to expand its destabilising operations throughout the Middle East, until Israel stopped it with attacks on its homeland and by shattering Hezbollah in Lebanon. The pathetic end to 20 years of war and loss of blood and treasure for the West in Afghanistan came under Biden, too.

Trump heads into the White House thoroughly puffed up by his role in securing the Gaza ceasefire. His allies, and enemies, will now be plotting how to exploit his narcissism and vanity further. Will he now have an eye on a Nobel Peace Prize?