Staff Reports
A recent press briefing saw White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expertly dance around the question of whether President-elect Donald Trump deserved credit for the ceasefire deal ending the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The gymnastics could make Olympians proud as she suggested that credit-sharing is just part of the game when significant achievements occur. Apparently, in her world, everyone wants a slice of the credit pie—especially those who had nothing to do with baking it in the first place.
Jean-Pierre insisted that it was President Biden who should take the lion’s share of the credit. She touted his “framework” from last May as the backbone of the recent peace deal, framing him as a seasoned diplomat with decades of foreign policy experience. According to her, Biden’s keen ability to bring people together and hammer out deals was the secret sauce behind the sudden cessation of hostilities—a claim that might make even seasoned negotiators chuckle into their lattes.
During her final Press Briefing, Karine repeatedly pushed back on any attempt to credit Trump’s team for influencing the Israeli/Hamas hostage deal.
She was stunned to learn that the Biden State Department had credited the hostage deal to Trump. pic.twitter.com/E4sFVsHaoy
— Media Lies (@MediasLies) January 16, 2025
When questions arose about the involvement of Trump’s appointed Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, Jean-Pierre pivoted to the theme of continuity in leadership, pulling the “peaceful transfer of power” card out of her deck as if it were the ace of spades. It seems that in the interconnected web of politics, about the only thing you can count on is the belief that every new administration can somehow canoodle with the last one’s contributors—because who wouldn’t want a bit of help from the Trump team when success is in the air, right?
The White House even touted National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s pleasant exchanges with Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser pick, marking it as a triumph of cooperation. The narrative was spinning that this bipartisan engagement proved that when it comes to serious matters like international peace, unity is key—even if that unity involves tipping one’s hat to the former president who is waiting in the wings, eagerly taking credit for arrangements made behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Biden himself was busy acknowledging the essential teamwork that went into the realigned Middle East strategy, stating that both his administration and Trump’s incoming team were “speaking as one.” It’s a classic case of bipartisanship in action, whereby both parties scramble to take credit for any whiff of success. Just as Trump was firing off a Truth Social post proudly claiming victory and signaling to the world that only his administration could have brokered peace, Biden was standing at the podium hinting at an all-for-one-and-one-for-all philosophy that certainly feels more like political tap dancing than genuine praise.
In the age of social media and grandstanding, perhaps the biggest takeaway from this mess is that when it comes to foreign policy, credit must go to whoever is holding the microphone—and in this case, isn’t it amusing to see the current administration practically forcing a round of applause for their predecessors? The optics of the whole drama are rich, much like a three-layer cake of political intrigue, with one flavor undoubtedly being denial—something that might just fuel the next campaign trail.
