On December 29, 2025, President Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, a clear signal that American leadership and decisive diplomacy are back where they belong. The meeting came as Washington pushes to move the fragile Gaza ceasefire into the more difficult second phase — disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza under strict international supervision.
The agenda was straightforward: press Israel and its neighbors to follow through on the U.S.-brokered plan while keeping Tehran from exploiting any lull to rearm. Administration officials and foreign partners have warned that the second phase has stalled because Hamas has not truly disarmed, and rebuilding cannot proceed until weapons caches are neutralized.
President Trump did not mince words about Iran, telling allies that any attempt by Tehran to rebuild a nuclear weapon program would be met with overwhelming force — the kind of clear deterrence that kept America and its partners safer when strength was the rule. That blunt message is exactly what our friends in the region need after years of weak red lines from the other side of the aisle.
Mr. Trump also used the meeting to publicly back Prime Minister Netanyahu and to press for swift implementation of the plan, even renewing calls that have swirled around a potential pardon as political and legal battles swirl back home in Jerusalem. Whatever one thinks of politics, the conservative instinct to stand with an ally fighting for survival is the right one at a perilous moment.
This summit followed a string of high-level meetings at Mar-a-Lago — including with Ukraine’s leader — that underline a simple fact: President Trump is personally driving diplomacy, not outsourcing it to career bureaucrats who talk tough and act timid. The American people should take comfort in a commander-in-chief who combines real-world leverage with a willingness to make deals that secure peace and protect U.S. interests.
Contrast this with the last administration’s hollow rhetoric and fumbling geopolitics; working patriots know you don’t negotiate from a position of moral lecturing and hand-wringing, you negotiate from strength. If you care about American security, Israel’s survival, and a stable Middle East, you should applaud a leader who is bringing parties to the table and preparing to enforce the outcome.
Now is not the time for weak-kneed doubters or media grandstanders to pretend they care about peace while rooting for American decline. Conservatives should rally behind the bold, clear-sighted diplomacy on display in Florida, demand accountability from feckless critics, and stand with our allies against tyranny and terror — because strength, not surrender, keeps Americans and our friends safe.
