World
What does President-elect Trump’s win mean for US amid war between Israel, Hamas?
JERUSALEM — President-elect Donald Trump’s victory Wednesday morning will likely lead to a new U.S. Middle East policy that will have a dramatic effect on Israel’s war against Iran-backed terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, according to experts.
Fox News Digital reached out to leading U.S. and Israeli experts on the Middle East for their insights on the meaning of a second Trump term on the unfolding instability and wars in the region. The Iranian regime has aggressively backed Hamas and Hezbollah in their wars against the Jewish state for more than a year. Tehran has also launched two aerial drone and missile attacks on the Jewish state in 2024.
U.S.-Israel Mideast expert Caroline Glick, who served as an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Fox News Digital, “Trump’s policy of respecting the prerogatives of Israel’s democratically elected government will enable Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ministers to pursue their strategy of victory over Iran and its proxies to its successful conclusion. Israel does not seek direct U.S. involvement in the war. Rather, it hopes that the U.S. will provide it with diplomatic and other support to enable it to achieve victory against foes common to the U.S. and Israel.”
NETANYAHU’S DEFIANCE OF BIDEN-HARRIS RAFAH INVASION THREATS LED TO ELIMINATION OF SINWAR, EXPERTS SAY
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-President Trump are shown during the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords at the White House on Sept. 15, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Glick added, “The Trump doctrine of minimizing U.S. involvement in the Middle East is predicated on supporting America’s allies, first and foremost Israel, in their bid to defeat their enemies, who are also America’s enemies. Trump support for an Israeli victory will enable the president to preside over a post-war period of calm and unprecedented peace, which is only possible after an Israeli victory.”
The Biden administration has faced criticism for its crackdown on Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas after the jihadi movement slaughtered nearly 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, including more than 40 Americans. Biden reportedly withheld vital armaments at one point while Israel engaged in its existential war.
Glick has been a sharp critic of the Biden-Harris administration and said that “Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons and to wage a seven-front war against Israel. The U.S. has protected Hamas’s regime in Gaza and Hezbollah’s control over Lebanon.”
Palestinian terrorists of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, take part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel on July 19, 2023, in Gaza. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
Retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, told Fox News Digital that “President Trump’s win presents a huge opportunity for the Middle East to dismantle the Shiite axis [the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon] and restore security to the Middle East by signing peace agreements and creating a Western-Israel-Sunni alliance that will extend all the way to Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Oman.”
He added that peace and prosperity in the Middle East “requires dealing with the dangers of a nuclear Iran. Israel’s expectation is to see the U.S. leading a coalition that will deal militarily with the nuclear sites of Iran and possibly even bring down the regime and dismantle the Shiite axis that is endangering all the moderate states in the Middle East.”
HOW US-BACKED UN RESOLUTION FAILED TO STOP HEZBOLLAH TERROR TAKEOVER: ‘BIPARTISAN FAILURE’
Members of the Basij paramilitary force are shown during a rally commemorating International Quds Day in downtown Tehran, Iran, on April 14, 2023. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Avivi said Israel has set the stage by destroying Hamas and is on the verge of destroying Hezbollah.
David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital, “The election of Trump will have a significant impact on Middle East policy. Iran and its proxies will feel profoundly threatened, but they will not give up. They cannot; it is a matter of regime survival for Iran.”
“Any Israeli hope harbored by some in Israel that now the United States will pick up the ball and join Israel in fighting this war, especially Iran itself, is a false hope,” Wurmser said. “Trump will let Israel do what it needs to do and protect it without reservation or restraint to do that, but it will not do it for Israel.”
“Another area in which there will be considerable American input will be the formation of the Middle East peace structure that expands the Abraham Accords without pressing the Saudi or others to deal with the Palestinian issue,” he said.
An IDF tank rolls through the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)
Trump’s signature first-term Middle East accomplishment was the Abraham Accords that established diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Mideast experts said that had Trump not lost to Biden in the 2020 election, he could have secured a grand diplomatic recognition agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Jewish state.
BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN TREATMENT OF UKRAINE, ISRAEL WARS ‘DIFFERS SUBSTANTIALLY,’ EXPERTS SAY
According to Wurmser, “The incoming administration will represent a paradigm shift where a strong Israel and a weak, besieged and retreating Iran will advance a regional alliance that challenges Iran and China and abandons the two-state Palestinian obsession of the Washington establishment as the guiding principle of policy.”
The Islamist government of Turkey’s strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will also likely meet resistance from Trump. Erdoğan, who supports the U.S.-designated terrorist entity Hamas, in July threatened to invade Israel to protect Palestinians. Erdoğan also provides material support for Hamas terrorists who live in Turkey.
An aircraft from the Israeli Air Force (IDF)
Efrat Aviv, a professor in the Department of General History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a leading expert on Turkey, told Fox News Digital that “Trump’s pro-Israel stance clashes with Erdoğan’s support for Hamas, which Turkey sees as freedom fighters. Turkey’s alleged involvement in facilitating Hamas’s activities, including granting them passports and aiding money laundering, complicates relations further.”
“Turkey found relief in Trump’s presidency, in contrast to Biden, who had criticized Erdoğan’s democratic backslide, notably excluding Turkey from the 2021 Summit for Democracy,” Aviv added. “Under Trump, American pastor Andrew Brunson was released from Turkish custody. However, despite Trump’s generally favorable stance, tensions persist. Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey five times during his tenure, and key issues, such as U.S. support for Kurdish groups and Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, remain divisive.”
“Whether this marks the beginning of a new chapter or if tensions continue to overshadow their personal friendship remains to be seen,” noted Aviv.
There are skeptics who view Trump as shifting to a policy that will strong-arm Israel into a possible premature end to the war to root out Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip and eradicate Hezbollah terrorists and facilities on its northern border.
From left, Bahrain Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump and United Arab Emirates Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on Sept. 15, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served in the Obama administration, told Fox News Digital, “It’s an open question as to how a Trump 2.0 will operate in the Middle East. Unlike Trump 1.0, he has a much more isolationist VP in JD Vance, and he also at the same time told Netanyahu to finish up the war in Gaza. And while he has expressed an interest in a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, he has a history of taking aggressive actions against it, and his communications were targeted by the regime during his campaign, which may fuel distrust and suspicion.”
“But the fundamentals of his wanting to focus on domestic issues are what will likely drive his policy in the early days, while he works to avoid international entanglements,” Rubin added. “My bet is that if the Middle East flares into creating headaches for him, particularly through increasing wars, he will work to stamp them out while not having a very ambitious agenda towards resolving longstanding challenges between Israel and the Palestinians.”
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Days after Iran’s leadership projected a unified front, undermining the long-cited moderate-vs.-hardliner divide, President Donald Trump canceled planned talks with Tehran in Islamabad, Pakistan, citing “infighting and confusion” inside the regime.
Iranian American experts argue that social media posts from Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian and other key officials reveal that the “good cop, bad cop” tactic that the regime exploited to deceive adversaries and secure generous concessions in nuclear negotiations has collapsed.
In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump announced he canceled the trip, citing “too much time wasted on traveling” and “too much work!”
“Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership,’” the president added, noting “nobody knows who is in charge, including them.”
President Donald Trump speaks from the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 1, 2026, updating the nation on the war in Iran. (Getty Images)
EXILED PRINCE LOOKS TO LEAD IRANIAN PEOPLE IN ENDING ISLAMIC REPUBLIC: ‘OUR BERLIN WALL MOMENT’
“Also, we have all the cards, they have none!” Trump wrote. “If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
The implosion of the hardline-moderate dichotomy within the regime could have profound consequences for Trump’s approach to the atomic talks in Islamabad, experts said. Trump appeared to allude to a blurry divide between factions within Iran last week.
“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), and it is CRAZY!” Trump wrote in an X post Thursday.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran and second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attends a meeting in Tehran, Iran. (Hamed Jafarnejad/ISNA/WANA/Reuters)
MORNING GLORY: PRESIDENT TRUMP LEADS THE WEST TO A BIG WIN AGAINST IRAN
Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei quickly fired back, claiming “due to the strange unity created among compatriots, a fracture has occurred in the enemy.”
“With practical gratitude for this blessing, cohesion has become even greater and more steel-like, and the enemies will become more wretched and diminished,” Khamenei wrote. “The enemy’s media operations, by targeting the minds and psyches of the people, intend to undermine national unity and security; may our negligence not allow this sinister intent to come to fruition.”
Mariam Memarsadeghi, a senior fellow at The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and founder and director of the Cyrus Forum for Iran’s Future, told Fox News Digital the Islamic Republic has, for decades, fooled Western policymakers by sending moderates to negotiations as a “window dressing for its terror and subjugation.”
A poster of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is pasted on a motorcycle windshield as government supporters gather in Tehran on April 9, 2026, marking the 40th day since the killing of his father, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Vahid Salemi/AP)
KHAMENEI’S DEATH OPENS UNCERTAIN CHAPTER FOR IRAN’S ENTRENCHED THEOCRACY
The officials would then tell their counterparts that they are under pressure from hardliners, implying that the West must make concessions to strengthen them internally.
“Because of the war, the Trump administration is in a remarkably advantageous situation vis-à-vis the imperial terror state, one never before attempted, much less achieved,” Memarsadeghi said.
“But every time Trump says regime change has already happened, he denies America the opportunity to finally, truly be rid of the world’s top sponsor of terror and the existential threat it poses not just to the people of Iran but to all the world.”
Navid Mohebbi, who worked as a Persian media analyst for the State Department’s Public Affairs Bureau, cautioned that while rivalries and factions do exist within the Islamic Republic, they are united on the regime’s core principles.
YALE HOSTS CONTROVERSIAL SPEAKER TRITA PARSI ACCUSED OF PROMOTING IRANIAN REGIME INTERESTS
“Their disagreements are primarily over tactics, not fundamental direction,” Mohebbi told Fox News Digital, stressing that real decision-making power in Iran has always rested with the supreme leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“So-called moderates have never had the final say on key strategic issues and are often used to soften the regime’s image abroad,” he said. “From the perspective of the Iranian people, there has been little difference. Across administrations labeled ‘moderate’ or ‘hardline,’ the system has consistently relied on repression.”
Mohebbi cited the example of Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani, who presented himself as a moderate but whose security forces violently killed 1,500 protesters during the November 2019 uprising.
Members of security forces watch over the crowd during a funeral procession for IRGC Navy Chief Alireza Tangsiri and other senior naval commanders killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes in late March in Tehran, Iran, on April 1, 2026. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER SAYS NUCLEAR TALKS WITH TRUMP ADMIN WOULD NOT BE ‘WISE’
“The same pattern has continued under Masoud Pezeshkian in the January 2026 protest massacre, reinforcing the reality that these labels have not translated into meaningful change on the ground,” he said.
A regional official, however, insisted there are clashes between moderates and hardliners in Iran. The official told Fox News Digital that Pezeshkian is a moderate, but he “could not even make good on his campaign promise regarding internet freedom. To be honest, he’s not even been able to do s—.
“The joint reaction by the heads of the three branches of power was in response to Trump’s reference to the issue of rift and also to the fact that there are indeed hardliners and moderates,” the official added.
“Look, whenever Iran wants to make concessions, they throw moderates under the bus so that the moderates make a deal, and then, the hardliners blame them for the same concessions all of them had agreed to make.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Lawdan Bazargan, who was imprisoned by the Islamic Republic in the 1980s for her political dissident activities, told Fox News Digital that what officials are seeing now is not the disappearance of the divide, but the exposure of what that divide actually was.
“In reality, all of these figures — Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf [speaker of Iran’s parliament], Saeed Jalili [member of the Expediency Discernment Council], Pezeshkian, Ahmad Vahidi [head of the IRGC], Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei [head of Iran’s judiciary] — operate within the same ideological framework,” Bazargan said.
“They are all committed to the preservation of the system, the projection of power in the region and confrontation with what they define as ‘the forces of evil,’ namely the United States and Israel.”
BREAKINGBREAKING,
The US president was escorted out from the event at a Washington DC hotel by his secret service agents.
Published On 26 Apr 2026
United States President Donald Trump has been evacuated from the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington, DC, after shots were fired outside the event.
The evacuation on Saturday evening came after gun shots were heard outside the hotel ballroom where Trump and the first lady had been sitting ahead of the annual media event.
Trump hailed the United States Secret Service and local enforcement after the incident in a post on Truth Social.
“They acted quickly and bravely,” Trump said.
“The shooter has been apprehended, and I have recommended that we “LET THE SHOW GO ON” but, will entirely be guided by Law Enforcement. They will make a decision shortly. Regardless of that decision, the evening will be much different than planned, and we’ll just, plain, have to do it again.”
Footage from the scene showed Trump and attendees taking cover behind their table after shots rang out, as people yelled “Get down!” and “Stay down!”
Trump was then rushed away from the scene by Secret Service agents, after which heavily armed agents surrounded the table.
Al Jazeera producer Chris Sheridan said he heard what he believed to be five gun shots outside the ballroom.
“We could smell the powder. We immediately dove to the ground. It was directly behind me,” Sheridan said.
Weijia Jiang, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, told the media that the programme would resume and that more details will be provided soon.
More to come…
-
Health2 minutes agoContrave Helped Her Lose 61 Pounds—‘I Stopped Thinking About Food’
-
Culture14 minutes agoBook Review: ‘If This Be Magic,’ by Daniel Hahn
-
Lifestyle20 minutes agoWorldwide Pinhole Photography Day
-
Technology32 minutes agoTrump fires the entire National Science Board
-
World38 minutes agoIran’s good cop, bad cop game implodes as experts warn regime views US as ‘evil’
-
Politics44 minutes agoTrump rushed from same hotel where Reagan assassination attempt unfolded in 1981
-
Health50 minutes ago‘No contact’ on the rise: Nearly 2 in 5 Americans cut ties with loved ones
-
Sports56 minutes agoUFL 2026: Full Regular-Season Schedules, Results for All 8 Teams