American strength returned to the Middle East this week when President Trump stood up where others wavered and helped shepherd a ceasefire that brought home the final hostages after two brutal years. Conservatives should take a moment to appreciate what decisive leadership looks like: quiet, relentless pressure and the willingness to put America’s interests first rather than bend to every international pundit and bureaucrat. This was not the tepid diplomacy of the left; this was results-driven statecraft that prioritized American citizens and allied partners.
Former Trump national security adviser Victoria Coates rightly told Laura Ingraham that Hamas “has nothing to offer anymore,” and she explained why — the terror group was financially strangled and diplomatically isolated by sustained pressure. That’s the direct consequence of strong policy: cut off the money, squeeze the sponsors, and the terrorists lose leverage. Working with regional players who can rebuild Gaza if they choose peace removed the bad actors’ ability to blackmail the world.
The human payoff of this tough-minded approach is obvious and emotional: families got their children and loved ones back after horrors that no decent person should ever endure. The final transfers of hostages reunited tearful parents with sons and daughters, a vindication of the administration’s single-minded focus on bringing Americans home. This victory — painful and costly though it was — proves that America still has muscle when it chooses to use it.
Make no mistake: this breakthrough did not arrive because of conciliatory handwringing or moral equivalence; it arrived because a president refused to let terror regimes exploit American weakness. Previous administrations spent months equivocating and issuing statements; real deterrence requires action, leverage, and the readiness to back words with consequences. Conservatives know that peace through strength is not a slogan but a strategy that produces results for ordinary citizens and allied democracies alike.
President Trump’s regional diplomacy — assembling leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, pressing Qatar and Egypt to stop money flows, and demanding accountability — forced a historic, if fragile, pause to the killing. Allies praised the U.S. role and the summit showed that America can still convene and lead when it prioritizes outcomes over optics. The work ahead is reconstruction and ensuring Hamas cannot rearm, but the moment proves conservative principles about power and prudence remain relevant and effective.
Now is not the time for complacency or for the usual media chorus insisting the job is done; it’s the time to cement victory by insisting any reconstruction or governance in Gaza exclude terrorist control and by keeping pressure on Iran and other sponsors. Patriots should demand that Washington convert this leverage into lasting security guarantees for Israel and durable protections for civilians across the region. If we keep backing firm policy and real alliances, America and our friends will keep winning — and that is something every hardworking American can be proud of.
