Republicans are publicly lauding President Donald Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Iran as an example of his “peace through strength” approach to foreign policy.

Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a “complete and total ceasefire” that will bring an end to the war. “This is a war that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform, alluding to criticism that he was dragging the U.S. into another prolonged Middle East conflict. 

When Fox News anchor Bret Baier scored a primetime interview with Vice President J.D. Vance for Monday evening, he likely hoped that Vance would have news to share with him. Instead, Baier was the one to break the news to Vance that President Donald Trump had brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, which Trump announced in a post on Truth Social moments before Vance went on air. 

“That’s good news that the president was able to get that across the finish line,” Vance told Baier, noting that he was aware those conversations were happening as he left the White House to head to the Fox News studio.  

As Iran targeted Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes against the Iranian nuclear program, Tucker Carlson claimed on his podcast that the air base exists to protect Israel.

“That base exists to protect Israel, by the way. I know we’re constantly, Bari Weiss is constantly attacking Qatar,” the conservative commentator said, referring to the founder and editor of The Free Press. “Qatar has done more to protect Israel. But anyway, hosting this base that they don’t need at all, it’s the richest country in the world. They’re doing it to be nice.”

Iran launched several missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday. Majed Al Ansari, spokesperson for the ministry, affirmed that “Qatar’s air defenses successfully thwarted the attack and intercepted the Iranian missiles.” 

Qatar “consider[s] this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations Charter. We affirm that Qatar reserves the right to respond directly in a manner equivalent with the nature and scale of this brazen aggression, in line with international law,” Al Ansari said.

Georgetown University administration said it was “appalled” after a prominent faculty member called for Iran to conduct a “symbolic strike” on a U.S. military base in a social media post on Sunday.  

“We are reviewing this matter to see if further action is warranted,” a spokesperson for the university told Jewish Insider on Monday, noting that the administration is “appalled” by the since-deleted tweet by Jonathan Brown, a tenured professor and chair of the university’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Alwaleed bin Talal chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service, who has a history of spreading anti-Israel vitriol.  

Despite President Donald Trump posting on Truth Social on Sunday suggesting that he sought regime change in Iran, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed his remarks when speaking to reporters on Monday morning.

“The president was just raising a question that I think many around the world are asking,” Leavitt said. “If the Iranian regime refuses to give up their nuclear program or engage in talks, we just took out their nuclear program on Saturday night, as you all know. But if they refuse to engage in diplomacy moving forward, why shouldn’t the Iranian people rise up against this brutal terrorist regime? That’s the question the President raised last night.”

Israel on Monday bombed the gates of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, where the regime holds and tortures dissidents, and conducted follow-up strikes near the Fordow nuclear facility a day after it was bombed by the U.S.

Evin has been a symbol of the regime’s oppression for decades. The Tehran prison is where the regime has incarcerated activists, protesters, journalists, dual nationals and others, and used torture methods including beatings, solitary confinement and sexual abuse. Iran expert Ben Sabti told Jewish Insider last week that Iranians have called on Israel to strike prisons so that dissident leaders held inside could escape and push for the toppling of the regime. 

Three House members who traveled to the Middle East last week told Jewish Insider on Friday that Arab leaders expressed to them concern about a potential broadening of the conflict between Israel and Iran, even as they acknowledged the threat posed by Iran and its nuclear program.

The trip, sponsored by the Atlantic Council’s N7 Initiative and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, took Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Zach Nunn (R-IA) to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain immediately following Israel’s initial attacks on Iran. A stop in Israel was initially planned, but ultimately became infeasible due to the evolving war between Israel and Iran.