Trump Says He ‘Encouraged’ Netanyahu to Agree to Gaza Ceasefire Deal

Dur­ing his ’60 Min­utes’ inter­view, Don­ald Trump also assert­ed that the Gaza cease­fire is ‘not frag­ile’ and in fact ‘very sol­id’

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA: Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, in his recent inter­view for CBS’s ‘60 Min­utes’, which was aired on Sun­day, Novem­ber 2, claimed that it was he who “pushed” the Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu toward the Gaza cease­fire deal, end­ing two years of con­flict in the region between Israel and Hamas.

The deal was medi­at­ed by the US under Trump last month and led to the release of 20 sur­viv­ing Israeli hostages.

Trump asserts his role in the Gaza cease­fire

When the inter­view­er, Norah O’Donnell, asked whether Don­ald Trump could con­vince Ben­jamin Netanyahu to rec­og­nize a Pales­tin­ianstate, the POTUS answered, “I pushed him. I didn’t like cer­tain things that he did. And you saw what I did about that.”

Point­ing toward the Israeli prime min­is­ter’s long-run­ning cor­rup­tion tri­al, Trump called Netanyahu “a very tal­ent­ed guy” who is being unfair­ly treat­ed. He has called for the case to be thrown out and has said the US would be “involved in that to help him out.”

Both lead­ers have at times had a strained rela­tion­ship. Trump was frus­trat­ed with Netanyahu’s han­dling of the con­flict in Gaza and the Qatar talks, which test­ed his patience dur­ing his efforts to end the con­flict.

Trump’s first inter­view after CBS law­suit

The pres­i­dent sat down for the exclu­sive inter­view on Fri­day, Octo­ber 31. It is his first inter­view with the net­work in five years, espe­cial­ly after his law­suit against them, mak­ing it a sig­nif­i­cant one. 

Trump sued CBS News over their ’60 Min­utes’ inter­view with Kamala Har­ris, accus­ing the net­work of decep­tive­ly edit­ing her remarks about the con­flict in Gaza to favor her 2024 cam­paign.

He sought bil­lions in dam­ages, claim­ing it amount­ed to vot­er inter­fer­ence. CBS denied the claim, call­ing it stan­dard edit­ing. The case was set­tled in July this year for $16 mil­lion. 

Dur­ing the inter­view, Trump also spoke about glob­al con­flicts, like that in Ukraine, claim­ing it would­n’t have hap­pened on his watch, and warned Chi­na about its ten­sions with Tai­wan. He also men­tioned the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela and the US military’s activ­i­ties in the region.

Trump calls Gaza cease­fire ‘very sol­id’

About the sit­u­a­tion in the Mid­dle East, Trump assert­ed that the cease­fire medi­at­ed by his admin­is­tra­tion is in good shape. “It’s not frag­ile. It’s a very sol­id,” he said. “I mean, you hear about Hamas, but Hamas could be tak­en out imme­di­ate­ly if they don’t behave. They know that. If they don’t behave, they’re gonna be tak­en out imme­di­ate­ly.”