WASHINGTON — As the last 20 living Israeli hostages walked out of Gaza on Monday after more than two years of captivity, President Donald Trump reportedly stood before a full-length mirror in the residence and practiced the cadence of the word “unprecedented” until an aide gently suggested he take a break for lunch.
The hostage release, the centerpiece of a fragile ceasefire announced last week, freed the final living captives held since October 7, 2023. Within minutes of the news breaking, the President posted a 1,400-word statement on Truth Social in which the words “I,” “me,” and “my” appeared a combined 89 times, and the word “hostages” appeared four.
“This is unequivocally the largest single act of personal heroism in modern diplomatic history, and I’m not even saying that as flattery, I’m saying it as a credentialed observer,” said Devra Kalman, who runs a one-person consultancy out of an Arlington co-working space and has been quoted in three separate White House readouts this month. “Frankly, the Nobel committee should be embarrassed they haven’t already FedExed it.”
According to two officials familiar with the morning’s preparations, Trump spent roughly 40 minutes deciding whether to wear the long red tie or the slightly longer red tie, ultimately choosing the longer one on the grounds that it would “photograph more historically.” He then asked an aide whether the freed hostages would be available for a photo op at Mar-a-Lago, and was reportedly disappointed to learn they would prefer to see their families first.
The President’s prepared remarks, clocking in at 47 minutes during a private rehearsal, devote a brief acknowledgment to the hostages themselves before pivoting into an extended section comparing the deal to the Treaty of Versailles, the Camp David Accords, and “that thing Reagan did, you know the one.” A senior staffer who reviewed the draft described it as “mostly the standard rally speech with the word ‘Gaza’ inserted in seven places.”
Trump has, by official count, demanded the Nobel Peace Prize on at least 31 separate occasions since taking office, including twice during a speech about tariffs and once in a comment to a reporter who had asked him about the World Series. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded this year’s prize last week to a Venezuelan opposition leader, has not commented, though one member was overheard at a dinner in Oslo describing the situation as “awkward, but in a way we will simply have to live with.”
In Tel Aviv, where families embraced their returned relatives on a tarmac under a bright autumn sun, the mood was reportedly less focused on American electoral metaphors. “We are just glad they are home,” said the cousin of one freed hostage, when asked by a U.S. network correspondent whether she would like to thank the President directly on camera. The correspondent then asked the question two more times, in slightly different phrasings, before moving on.
By Monday evening, Trump had already begun floating the possibility of a separate, additional Nobel for what he described as “the second-best part of the deal, which a lot of people don’t even know about yet.” He declined to specify what that part was, citing ongoing negotiations with himself.
Aides say the speech is now in its fourth draft and continues to grow.