On today's show, Sean Hannity delves into President Trump's pivotal role in negotiating a landmark ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, highlighting his unique use of tariffs and diplomacy to broker peace across volatile regions. Hannity critiques the Nobel committees decision to overlook Trump for the Peace Prize despite past flexibility for figures like Barack Obama while applauding Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for both receiving the award and dedicating it in part to Trumps support. Key voices like Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and global leaders echo Trumps outsized influence in achieving this rare moment of simultaneous celebration among Israelis and Gazans. Hannity frames these developments against widespread political silence, especially among traditional critics, and emphasizes Trumps direct impact on U.S. foreign policy, hostage negotiations, and Middle East stability arguing why these achievements deserve more recognition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Sean, if you want to join us, you know, pretty amazing.
Here you have President Trump, and we've gone through the list of areas, you know, around the world, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Israel, and Armenia and Azerbaijan and Cambodia and Rwanda and, you know, the Congo.
And it goes on and on and on that the president has expended political capital in the name of trying to negotiate a peace.
He's used the power of tariffs.
This is going to be a very, very important, critical Supreme Court decision.
I do believe while constitutionally, you know, you can understand the argument about Congress having issues and power over tariffs, but the president also needs it for his constitutional authority and role.
And this president more than any other is using it, the tariff issue, as a leverage point for him to prevent wars.
And that's a big deal.
It was not a surprise to me that the president, in spite of all these efforts, which have been, you know, it's Herculean in many ways to try and bring about world peace and has been successful in so many areas with the latest development.
I mean, I don't think any of us really thought in our lifetime we'd see the people of Gaza and the people of Israel both celebrating simultaneously as we played on the program yesterday, and that's all happening.
And, you know, out comes the Nobel Peace Prize today.
And of course, it didn't go to Donald J. Trump.
You know, some people are defending the Nobel Prize's decision not to award the president by pointing out, well, the nominations for the 2025 Peace Prize were closed 20, well, this is really for the year 2024.
It was closed out nine months ago before this historic Middle East peace deal, but it doesn't reflect the magnitude and the effort that the president has put into peace around the world.
And anyway, so the Nobel Committee's deadline nominations were January 31st, only days into the president's second term of office.
All right, I guess they can use that as an excuse.
We check the record.
As it turns out, the Nobel Committee had absolutely no problem whatsoever nominating Barack Obama for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, even though the nomination for 2009 deadline was the exact same day, which is January 31st, 2009.
And this decision is so bizarre that even Obama noted that the nomination seemed to, you know, seemed hard to justify.
In a 36-minute speech accepting the nomination, Obama discussed the tensions between war and peace and the idea of a just war.
Perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the commander-in-chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars.
And those who were passed over so that Obama could be awarded the peace prize included the prime minister of Zimbabwe, who had been considered a favor for the award at that time.
And responding to the controversy over the Obama award, the Nobel Committee chair explained, no one could deny the international climate had suddenly improved.
Now that Mr. Obama was, and he was the main reason.
Yeah, I could do that.
Here's an interesting side note to this.
So the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is a woman that is actually very courageous.
And she is the Venezuelan opposition.
Maria Carino Machado is her name.
And what was fascinating is she received the award and she posted on X. She dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to President Donald J. Trump and his support for her cause after the Nobel Committee again declined to bestow Trump himself with the award.
Quote, this recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task, which to conquer for freedom.
And she went on and she said, we are on the threshold of victory.
And today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of our world as our principled allies to achieve freedom and democracy.
I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.
This dedication did not come out of the blue.
The Trump administration has been working to pressure the Maduro government in Venezuela to crack down on their drug trafficking efforts.
And considering they've not been too particularly cooperative, we've been watching what's been happening with these narco-terrorist boats that are being shot out of the sea.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu knocked the Nobel Committee after President Trump failed to win the group's coveted peace prize.
Quote, the Nobel Committee talks about peace.
President Apriel Donald Trump makes it happen.
The Israeli Prime Minister's office posted on X. The facts speak for themselves.
President Trump deserves it.
The post in response to the White House spokesman, Stephen Chung, who suggested the committee be played that the committee place politics over peace.
In a side note to this, the president is going now on Sunday to visit Israel on Monday.
He will speak before the Knesset and visit Israel ahead of the release of these remaining hostages in Gaza, speak before the Knesset, meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and reportedly land at Ben-Gurion airport and speak alongside not only the prime minister, but President Isaac Herzog, according to reports, following these speeches, he may go and meet with the hostage families.
The president also promised Qatar and Egyptian mediators he's going to meet and Turkey leaders that he would meet as well that Israel won't return to fighting.
Well, they're not going to return to fighting, but really that decision is going to be in the hands of Hamas if Hamas starts firing rockets.
You know, it is beyond disconcerting.
There was a poll that came out, a new Quinnipiac survey that came out.
43% of New Yorkers favor the Palestinians versus 22% of the side with Israel.
And according to the Quinnipiak poll, you know, the Republicans favor Israel over the Palestinians, 53 to 11.
So this is a red-blue issue in many, many ways.
And you have the anti-Semitic, you know, members of Congress and the virulent rhetoric that we've heard out of the squad members, et cetera, et cetera.
It is very, very frustrating.
And this is why I try to cloak this argument in terms that we can understand.
Because what happened on October 7th is there's a little over 9 million, a population of 9 million in Israel.
It is not a big country.
It is about the size of New Jersey.
And I keep pointing out and have pointed out from day one since October 7th, what, two years, four days ago, that if you look at the 1,500 Israelis that were slaughtered that day, and I've looked at the videos the IDF showed me in private, you know, the actual videos taken by these murdering, you know, kidnapping, raping thugs of Hamas because they were proud of what it was that they were doing.
But the level of ignorance to me is breathtaking among some, and this is part of the problem.
I think people were sympathetic in the beginning, but they don't really understand the magnitude of it because when you compare such a small population, just compare it to America's population.
What's our population now, Linda?
360 million Americans, whatever the number is, compared to 9 million.
That would be the equivalent of 40,000 dead Americans in a single day.
And if you ask yourself, what would you expect your country to do if you knew that 40,000 Americans were killed in one day and that others were taken hostage and that others were raped and that others were beheaded, kidnapped?
All of these things happen.
And I have a hard time understanding how in two years' time it evolved into an issue of, well, how is Israel responding?
And then there's a level of ignorance as to the events leading up to this.
And having been to Israel numerous times and reported from Israel numerous times, it is frustrating that so many people, they've never been in the terror tunnel networks that I have been in and reported from.
They've never been to those border towns that I have been to.
One town in particular, over 10,000 rockets fired into their one little border town with Gaza in 10 years.
They've never seen the devastation.
They don't know what it's like to live life under those conditions.
And I just say, if it was ever happening in America, I promise you, you would have a very different perspective and a very different desire of what the conclusion and outcome should be.
And it's not like Israel is asking as much as some people would argue as much from the United States as you think.
Yes, we do support them.
Yes, they are our ally.
They're the only democracy in the region.
And, you know, can you blame them when their very survival is literally in jeopardy and hanging in the balance as they've been surrounded by enemies?
And this is what makes what President Trump pulled off here so difficult.
He had to thread one needle after another.
You know, Arab nations that have wanted no part of being involved in a solution for the region, you know, he was able to get them on board and committed to that process.
The president was able to persuade the Israelis were perfectly positioned to go in and knock out Hamas once and for all and finish the job and decimate the place.
And the president, because of the great relationship that he's built up with Israel, was able to convince the prime minister not to do that.
The president similarly, you know, spoke very loudly and he is respected in that part of the world.
I know because I was with him on the trip to the Gulf states.
I saw it firsthand the level of respect that they have for this president, a respect for his strength, the fact that he wants a peaceful coexistence and to have trade deals and business deals.
And, you know, I mean, probably beyond the Israelis, I'll tell you the next happiest people that exist in the world that are that Donald Trump took out Iranian nuclear sites, it would be the Arab world.
And I just said this yesterday, you know, that he never got credit in his first term, that he created a coalition that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.
And that was you had intelligence sharing, cooperation at a level nobody knew about.
I knew about it because of different sources that I have, and they were informing me about it.
But trust me, there's no love loss between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the UAE and the Qataris and the Egyptians and Jordanians.
And they all feared Iranian hegemony and a nuclear-armed Iran.
And they partnered with the U.S. and with Israel in intelligence sharing.
And there was probably, you know, I think without taking out those Iranian nuclear sites, I don't think what happened this week would have actually happened.
Now, we've got to get to the phase two of this aspect, and I think we will.
By the way, you got to tip your hat to the first lady, Melania Trump, stunning journalist Friday, announcing that she had an open channel with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to secure the reunification of kidnapped Ukrainian children with their families.
He said eight kids have been returned to families over the past 24 hours, including one who was brought from Ukraine to her family in Russia.
And plans are already underway for further reunifications.
The first lady wrote a letter to Putin that was delivered at President Trump's August 15th Alaska summit with his Russian counterpart.
And much has unfolded since President Putin received my letter, she said.
Putin replied to her letter, and quote, since the president, since President Putin and I have an open channel of communication, you know, she described several back-channel meetings and calls that have taken place.
My representative has been working directly with President Putin's team to connect children with their families, and she accomplished that.
Maybe she should get a peace prize, too.
But, you know, don't expect, you know, goodness.
By the way, we have insane debate audio what's going on in New Jersey and in Virginia.
Wow.
These races are heating up.
I think maybe it was some of the most embarrassing moments in gubernatorial debate history, especially in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
We'll get to that.
We have a lot to get to today.
We'll get legal analysis on the indictment of Letitia James.
Jack Chitterelli, the gubernatorial candidate from New Joise, will join us.
He's really in this race.
And I believe that Winsom Sears is making a massive comeback as well.
One last thing on what's happened this week in the history of this week.
All these lawmakers demanding that have been demanding a ceasefire in Gaza over the past two years, eerily silent now since Donald Trump actually secured one with Israel and Hamas on Wednesday.
You know, where are the squad members?
Where's Congresswoman Tlaib that said, you know, this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire and help de-escalate.
Where's she?
You know, she had nothing to say about our sitting president.
Where's AOC, leader of the squad, another frequent voice calling for a ceasefire?
Why is she so quiet?
You know, why are Democrats in general so quiet?
Where's Congresswoman Jayapal, you know, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire on the two-year anniversary of October 7th?
Oopsie Daisy.
You know, she's not commented since Trump announced the deal.
Why is that?
Where's Congressman Omar, you know, one of the most outspoken supporters of the Palestinian causing in Congress, issuing a lukewarm response to the good news saying, well, for the sake of humanity, let's hope this will be a lasting and permanent ceasefire, and then demanded that Israel be punished.
Unbelievable.
What part of the equivalent of 40,000 dead Americans doesn't she get?
So sick of ignorant people.
Schumer's out there, Hakeem Jeffries out there praising the Mideast peace deal, but no mention of Donald Trump.
I mean, this is how petty the Democratic Party's become and, you know, how lacking in courage Schumer is.
He doesn't want to alienate his radical base anymore.
Anyway, the so-called leader of the Senate, he's really leader in name only, issued this statement on the amazingly good news that President Trump has engineered this peace deal, but he didn't mention Donald Trump.
I mean, nowhere in Schumer's statement on this miraculous peace deal are the words Donald Trump ever appear.
Not once, nowhere.
Doesn't happen.
Does any of this surprise you?
It shouldn't, because this represents the radicalization of the Democratic Party today, and it's so far worse than we ever thought.
You know, and now Trump is embarking on this trip to the Middle East, and you're getting worldwide praise.
You are getting some Democratic praise as well, to be fair.
But he's going to embark on this trip.
He's going to speak before the Knesset.
And, you know, you have to hope.
Let's see these hostages get released.
Let's see phase two.
I think one thing you've got to understand and factor in here is if there was any leverage that Hamas might have had, you know, by agreeing to phase one of this deal, that leverage will be gone.
And I think President Trump's, you know, he gave them a plain choice, take the deal or get obliterated.
Doesn't get any more clear than that.
Not unlike what he did with Iran.
Not unlike, by the way, what he's doing and what he promised Vladimir Putin.
Different circumstances, different country.
You know, we're dealing with nuclear weapons as something you have to factor in.
He's taken the handcuffs off the Ukrainians.
They're now pounding Russian refineries in a massive way.
Reuters reporting that the Russians now have long lines and people waiting to buy and purchase gasoline as a result of this.
The lifeblood of Russia's economy is gas, period.
It's oil, period.
And then the president putting tariffs on countries that do business with Russia.
It's having a massive effort.
Speaker Gingrich pointed out that when the House passed the budget that would have kept the government open without increasing spending and it was blocked by the Democrats, the clean CR.
What is a clean CR?
Continuing resolution.
That means that you keep the government open funding at current levels.
And once the public found out about that, all of a sudden, well, nearly 40% of Americans, they blame the Democrats.
You're always going to have 30% of the radical left that'll blame Republicans for nothing.
What the Democrats are saying, the opposite of what they have said their entire careers, like Chucky Schumer, oh, you can't shut down the government.
Now we're feeling the impact of it as of really right now.
I mean, this is now, as of next week, the paychecks stop going out.
AP reporting, the White House Budget Office said today that mass firings of federal workers have now started in an attempt to let people that as a result of the Schumer shutdown.
These firings, according to President Trump, may end up being permanent.
Russ Voigt, director of OMB, said on X that RIFs have begun.
That means reduction in forced plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
A spokesperson for the budget office said the reductions are substantial, but did not offer any more immediate details.
The Education Department, among the agencies, hit by new layoffs.
A department spokesperson said earlier today about providing more details.
The department had laid off 4,100 employees when Trump took office in January.
Its workforce was nearly halved amid mass layoffs in the Republican administration's first months.
At the start of the shutdown, it had 2,500 employees, and now many of them are going to be furloughed.
So how long will Chuck keep going?
Now, I guess the quote of the week is, you know, Chucky Schumer just two days ago, every day gets better for us, you know, crowing about extending the shutdown.
Now, let me play a montage of Schumer over the years talking about the dangers of the shutdowns.
And then ask yourself, what has changed in Chucky Schumer?
I can tell you what it is before you hear it.
It is his desire to cling on to power, which, by the way, he will not be successful at.
He's right now leader in name only to begin with.
But if he's challenged by AOC, his political career is over.
It's done.
I'll mention a name to Chuck Schumer, one that he will readily remember, Alphonse D'Amato.
That's who he beat to become the senator in New York.
He will be Alphonse D'Amato, and he will retire from the U.S. Senate.
Anyway, here's Chucky in years gone by.
What if I persuaded my caucus to say I'm going to shut the government down?
I am going to not pay our bills unless I get my way.
It's a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.
It's sort of like this.
Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage, and then says, let's negotiate over the price of your house.
You know, we could do the same thing on immigration.
We believe strongly in immigration reform.
We could say we're shutting down the government.
We're not going to raise the debt ceiling until you pass immigration reform.
It would be governmental chaos.
Speaker McCarthy needs to stop letting the MAGA radicals drive his decisions and do the obvious and sensible thing.
Follow the Senate's lead and pass a bipartisan CR to prevent this reckless shutdown.
We do not want to let a Trump temper tantrum govern our policies or cause the shutdown of a government which everyone on both sides of the aisles knows is the wrong idea.
Oh, that was then.
This is now.
And Chuck Schumer, again, leader in name only, is scared to death of the radicals that run his party.
What a change.
Pretty dramatic.
I want to go to the Senate debate.
I'm sorry, the gubernatorial debate.
Sorry about that.
Because we have Jack Chittorelli at the top, and then later we'll talk more about this.
There were two remarkable exchanges in this debate that took place in Virginia between Abigail Spanberger and Lieutenant Governor Winsom Earl Sears.
And I'm beginning to think that the House of Cards for Abigail Spamberger is now collapsing in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
One exchange, they had to ask her four times about the issue of allowing biological boys in girls' locker rooms.
Listen to how she won't answer the question.
Focusing on a K-12 school system, should transgender girls who are biological males be allowed to use girls' bathrooms and play on girls' sports teams?
You have 60 seconds.
I'm a mother of three daughters in Virginia Public Schools, and nothing is more important to me than their safety and their experience in schools.
I'm also a former federal agent, and I work to investigate crimes against children.
And so nothing is more important to me than the safety of all of our children.
And that work, in part, has earned me the endorsement of Virginia's Police Benevolent Association.
Please let her speak.
On issues related to what's happening in our schools and each individual community, I think it's important that we have parents and teachers and administrators making decisions about their individual schools, not politicians.
And if we are talking about the safety of our children, I would ask why my opponent continues to support efforts to defund public safety, an effort carried on continually by this administration.
Once again, the question was, should transgender girls who are biological males be allowed to use girls' bathrooms and play on girls' sports teams in K through 12?
You have 15 seconds to clarify.
In cases across Virginia, I think it's incumbent upon parents and educators and administrators in each local community to make decisions locally.
That's what this is about.
Ms. Earl Sears.
There should never be rude men.
My goodness, we finally have her saying that, but you voted for that.
Ms. Earl Sears.
Can you find that Murray is lying?
Are you in a government now?
She won't answer the question.
Now, Jay Jones, the guy that's running for AG is a Democrat, exposed, including messages wishing the death upon the former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family.
And then Spanberger is asked four separate times to clarify if she still endorses the guy.
Again, she won't answer.
Will you continue to endorse Jay Jones to be the next Attorney General of Virginia?
And were you aware of these text messages before they released?
You have 30 seconds.
In fact, it appears that it was those who released the text messages and held them for years.
So the public was unaware who had knowledge of these text messages for many of us.
I guarantee these text messages the day that they came out, and I denounced them as soon as I learned of them.
She denounces Murray and importantly, at this point, as we move forward, the voters now have this information, information that was withheld for them.
You're running presumably for political reasons, but the voters now have the information, and it is up to voters to make an individual choice based on this information.
Ms. Greenberg, I understand what you're saying about the voters, but for you yourself, do you still continue to endorse Jay Jones?
15 seconds.
Yes or no?
We are all running our individual races.
I believe my opponent has said that about her lieutenant governor nominee.
Ms. Earl Sears.
And it's up to every person to make their own decision.
I am running my race to serve Virginia, and that is what I intend to do.
Thank you, Ms. Spanberger.
We just want to clarify, you know, what you're saying is that as of now, you still endorse Jay Jones as Attorney General.
I'm saying as of now, it's up to every voter to make their own individual decision.
I am running for governor.
I am accountable for the words that I say for the acts that I take, for the policies that I have put out.
I can't take it.
It's so frustrating.
We'll get back to that later.
Now, these races seem to be in play.
Virginia, get voting.
New Joysey, get voting.
We have Jack Chitterelli, the gubernatorial candidate, coming up.
