Bill O’Reilly thinks there’s one person and one person alone who should be getting credit for the Israel-Hamas war peace deal: President Donald Trump.
“You have to acknowledge history, and Donald Trump got this done — that’s it,” the conservative news host said in his eponymous web talk show on Tuesday. “There’s no but, there’s no why, there’s none of that speculative garbage. We do not do that — those who do are dishonest.”
O’Reilly admonished what he called the “hate-Trump press” for its apparent spinning of the deal as a joint effort between the Biden administration and Trump’s. He also noted some outlets’ negative framing of the president’s negotiating tactics during the deal, specifically citing BBC News’ North American editor Sarah Smith, who called him a “bully.”
“You don’t have to use the word ‘bully’ because that’s not what he is, alright? What Trump is is a strong man,” the host said. “He’s not a bully. A bully comes in and kicks defenseless people in the mouth. Hamas is not defenseless, lady! Yeah, they’re killers, they’re murderers. Got it? Go back to London and tell everybody. The dishonesty is staggering.”
O’Reilly did admit earlier in the segment, however, that no other president could have gotten the deal done like Trump, and that’s in part because other nations are afraid of what he might do.
“I think almost everybody understands that Joe Biden — and I’m not just picking on him, I don’t think Barack Obama or even George W. Bush could’ve gotten these hostages out,” O’Reilly said. “But people fear Donald Trump. And Iran in particular, which funds and arms the Hamas terrorists, are very afraid of the president. So he’s got leverage in there. And the Israelis can’t buck him because we’re pretty much the only friend Israel has right now in the world.”
Speaking further on the “hate-Trump press,” O’Reilly added that “reliable” anonymous sources told him that organizations like CNN and ABC’s “The View” were told to tone down their negativity around the MAGA president when reporting on the deal.
“I’ve been told that CNN talent, air talent, was ordered not to hammer Trump on this situation,” he said, noting that CNN anchor Abby Phillip admonished former President Barack Obama for not giving a full-throated endorsement of Trump’s accomplishment.
“Honestly it’s not unfair to say, if President Obama is going to write a whole post on a peace deal, maybe he should acknowledge the president that brokered it,” Phillip said in the clip O’Reilly ran.
On Monday, all 20 remaining living Israeli hostages were returned home as the first step of a peace deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas. Israel, in turn, released 250 Palestinian prisoners into Gaza and the West Bank and more than 1,700 Palestinians it had detained in Gaza since the war broke out after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on an Israeli music festival.
