Biden Commends Trump for Getting Gaza Deal ‘Over the Finish Line’
(Saul Loeb/Pool photo via AP)
Former President Joe Biden publicly commended President Donald Trump for getting a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas “over the finish line” while praising his own past administration for having “worked relentlessly” to bring the hostages home.
On Monday, the U.S.-brokered ceasefire saw Hamas release the final 20 hostages taken during the October 7, 2023, attacks, while Israel agreed to free 250 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,700 detainees held during its two-year military campaign in Gaza.
Trump had already received bipartisan praise from several notable Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, but his predecessor, Biden, who had also worked to secure a peace deal, had additional significance.
Biden, in a post to X on Tuesday that struck a tone of relief and reconciliation, wrote: “I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line.”
He continued to add he was “deeply grateful and relieved that this day has come, for the last living 20 hostages who have been through unimaginable hell and are finally reunited with their families and loved ones, and for the civilians in Gaza who have experienced immeasurable loss and will finally get the chance to rebuild their lives.”
Biden noted that “the road to this deal was not easy,” pointing to his administration’s own failed efforts to secure a truce in 2024. His team, he said, had “worked relentlessly to bring hostages home, get relief to Palestinian civilians, and end the war.”
During his final year in office, Biden made multiple attempts to end the war between Israel and Hamas but saw each ceasefire collapse under renewed violence. In September 2024, he told the United Nations he had “put forward with Qatar and Egypt a ceasefire and hostage deal that’s been endorsed by the UN Security Council.” Despite the international backing, the agreement faltered amid political deadlock and continuing Israeli operations in Gaza.
Biden’s diplomatic push relied heavily on regional mediators in Doha and Cairo, and he repeatedly framed the effort as a moral imperative, warning that “too many families [are] dislocated [in Gaza], crowding in the tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation.” In January 2025, he announced what he described as a “ceasefire deal” but within weeks, hostilities resumed.
By the time he left office, Biden’s vision of a durable peace had given way to the same cycle of escalation that now, months later, Trump’s administration appears to have finally broken.
