Breaking: Trump Declares Peace

Is the Israel-Iran ceasefire for real?

President Trump issued a late afternoon statement today saying Israel and Iran have agreed to a “COMPLETE and TOTAL CEASEFIRE.” After 12 hours to implement, Trump said, “the War will be considered, ENDED!” 

Has peace really broken out?

Initially, CNN cast doubt on Trump’s announcement, reporting that a senior Iranian official said that he had not received any ceasefire proposal. The New York Times reported that the Israeli military declined to comment on the matter. 

But enough other media are reporting that the agreement has been reached that I think it’s legit. Trump’s message has now been reposted on X by the State Department, and Trump has followed up thanking the Emir of Qatar for brokering the surprising outcome. Reuters has confirmed the Qatari role.

It’s classic Trump, after all: getting out ahead of the formal machinery of state with a stream-of-consciousness announcement.

Here’s how one senior intelligence official explained to me the best way to understand the dramatic turn of events:

"Donald Trump is the master of improv, sensing, just like a comedian, what's going over and what's not. One might find it funny, and it is sometimes laced with idiocy, and it is always done in poor taste, but if you stop to ponder the last crack too seriously, you'll miss the next zinger."

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt gushed:“President Trump has accomplished what no other president in history could ever imagine — the obliteration of the Iranian Regime’s nuclear program, and an unprecedented ceasefire between Israel and Iran.”

Whether a ceasefire will emerge and then hold remains to be seen, but the fact that Israel and Iran have agreed to it in principle is in itself a breakthrough. That’s the good news.

But as Trump wrote in a letter to Congress today notifying them of the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, “the United States stands ready to take further action, as necessary and appropriate, to address further threats or attacks” from Iran.

Speak loudly and carry a big shtick. That’s Donald Trump.

— Edited by William M. Arkin