A Republican strategist's attempt to praise President Donald Trump Friday morning was subjected to an epically sarcastic with fact check.
Republican strategist Melik Abdul was met with disdain on "CNN This Morning" after he suggested Trump might have reached an agreement to end Israel's war in Gaza.
"If this is true, it is a very big deal," Abdul said. "In the past, Donald Trump, as you acknowledged, has said some things that [have not] necessarily panned out. We can actually say that, but it would be a very huge deal if he if he does, and it's notable."
New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro rolled her eyes and snapped back, "Rainbows and unicorns are also a very big deal!"
Garcia-Navarro's cynicism only made Abdul lean harder into his assessment.
"His idea was that he could get things done pretty quickly because he is the 'peace president,'" said Abdul. "But if this is a true deal with Hamas, it is something that is taken very much longer and actually much longer than even what we're seeing with Iran."
Garcia-Navarro argued that the war in Iran was the precise reason Trump was making such claims about Gaza.
"I'm a former Middle East correspondent," she replied. "[I] have been to Gaza innumerable times, and what I will say about this is that it it defies any credibility, and this is probably what's happening here, is that the war in Iran is escalating. He's looking for exactly what we're doing here, discussing something positive that the administration is doing."
Garcia-Navarro said her views were shared by her friends and colleagues in the Middle East.
"But everyone that I know who knows the Middle East and covers the Middle East, has a reaction of skepticism," Garcia-Navarro continued. "Why? Because it's a lot more complicated than they have decided to give up their arms and everything's wonderful."
The former Middle East reporter then explained her views on Israel's role in the conflict.
"We're about to have an election in Israel," she said. "The far right wants to continue operations in Gaza, not only wants to continue operations in Gaza, but wants to occupy Gaza. Bibi Netanyahu is caught in that vise, so he has no incentive to resolve this, and then cut to actually what Hamas is saying and doing."
"There is no incentive for Hamas at this point to negotiate with what they believe is not a good-faith government," she concluded.
"They're going to wait it out until they see what happens on the Israeli side with these new elections, so I do not believe that this is actually what's going down."
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