Time magazine dedicated its next cover to President Donald Trump’s “triumph” in the Middle East as the first phase of the peace agreement between Israel and Hamas that could have ripple effects across the globe.
On Monday, Time unveiled its next edition featuring Trump confidently looking onward with the title, “His Triumph.”
“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 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.”
It marks a stark contrast to the numerous unflattering ones the magazine has done of Trump over the years, although it’s also twice named him Person of the Year.
TRUMP LAUDED BY MSNBC, LIBERAL MEDIA FIGURES FOR SECURING ISRAEL PEACE DEAL
U.S. President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 13, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters )
The article attached to the cover story highlighted Trump’s mantra that the “art of the deal” could “solve anything.”
“It was his creed in business, then in politics: the conviction that every conflict, no matter how intractable, can be negotiated into submission,” Time told readers, discussing his use of envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in negotiations.
“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. It could also mark a strategic turning point for the Middle East,” it continued, later adding, “If the peace holds, the region could enter a new era defined less by conflict than by the possibility of transformation, including the rebuilding of a post-Hamas Gaza and the normalization of Israeli relations with Saudi Arabia.”
‘VIEW’ CO-HOST PRAISES FORMER BOSS TRUMP FOR ‘MASSIVE DIPLOMATIC ACHIEVEMENT’ IN HOSTAGE DEAL
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. (Evelyn Hockstein – Pool/Getty Images)
The last 20 living Israeli hostages returned home early Monday after more than two years of captivity following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. Only four of the 28 bodies of Israeli hostages have been handed over so far, however. It is part of a larger swap that saw Israel free nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The early stages of Trump’s peace deal have seen him earning rare praise in the media.
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“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,” said “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin on Monday. “They personally met with Hamas. I used to be of the mind we don’t negotiate with terrorists, but sometimes the only way to get peace is to sit down with some of the most evil people and try to come up with what we can do to end the bloodshed.”
Trump heralded the deal as the dawn of a new era for the Middle East on Monday.
“It took us 3,000 years to get to this point,” Trump said, saying the Gaza deal was only the first step toward wider peace.
Avinatan Or was reunited with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, on Monday after more than two years in Hamas captivity. (Israel Defense Forces)
