Success of Trump peace deal overshadowed by Letitia James indictment

President Trump is making numerous threats.

Sometimes they get results, sometimes they don’t.

And sometimes it’s just bluster. Especially if it’s an online post, say saying the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois should go to jail for resisting sending troops to the Windy City.

But his relentless personality – backed by the world’s most powerful military – can be overwhelming.

Trump nominated for Nobel Peace Prize following ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas

President Trump’s recent progress on Middle East peace has been remarkable – even if it was marred at the last second by echoes of the legal proceedings against Letitia James. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

It is difficult to overstate the remarkable accomplishment Trump is making in leading Israel and Hamas to end their brutal and bloody two-year-old war.

It’s fair to say that no other president could have pulled this off. Joe Biden certainly couldn’t. In fact, since Jimmy Carter held the marathon Camp David talks with Anwar Sadar and Menachem Begin, no president has brokered peace between the Israelis and one of their Arab enemies.

Trump himself designed the Abraham Accords, with the help of Jared Kushner, joined by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in his first term, and later by Sudan and Morocco. This gave him the experience to take on this immensely more difficult challenge and spark more speculation about the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump had to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept his peace deal. (Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

A few quick caveats are in order now. The president says he expects the remaining 20 hostages to be returned Monday or Tuesday, but Hamas terrorists could raise new objections that derail the train.

Reporters asked questions about Phase 2, which would include the return of the bodies of deceased hostages, but the president wisely sidestepped these questions.

So no popping champagne corks yet.

EXCLUSIVE: ISRAELI AMBASSADOR SAYS THERE IS NO PEACE IN GAZA UNLESS Hamas Hands Over All 48 Hostages and Disarms Them

Presumably, it was these reservations that prompted on-air presenters and correspondents to appear rather sober when covering the latest developments. But I think it was more than that.

Some of these journalists don’t really support Trump. So it’s not easy for them to give him credit. They say the right words – a great accomplishment, etc. – but body language sends a different message.

Look, Israel has been in a state of war, or cold war, with neighboring countries since its founding in 1948.

And in a broader sense, Jews and Arabs have had hostile relations for many centuries. This is the biblical call to Pharaoh to “let my people go.”

Today, crucial questions remain unanswered about who will rule Gaza in the future, much of which is reduced to rubble. Israel suffered a brutal massacre on October 7, but it also found itself increasingly isolated as more than 60,000 Palestinians were killed. Many Israelis and American Jews believe Bibi Netanyahu let the war drag on too long to protect his political position.

Trump had to pressure Bibi into accepting his peace deal, essentially by threatening to force the United States out.

Today, Hamas is essentially being asked to surrender by handing over its weapons. Trump says he will join other countries in a peace council to prevent a resumption of war. But those details remain murky, beyond the fact that terrorists will no longer be in charge, as they have been since Israel’s voluntary withdrawal from the Gaza Strip nearly two decades ago.

GRAND JURY INDICATE NY AG LETITIA JAMES ON BANK FRAUD CHARGES IN VIRGINIA FEDERAL COURT

So, just as the president was basking in well-deserved praise for essentially remaking the Middle East, a new development occurred.

A grand jury indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud.

In a nutshell, this underscores the duality of the Trump presidency.

This seems like an insignificant measure, and in a video, James said “we will aggressively fight these baseless accusations.”

A grand jury indicted New York State Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud — essentially highlighting Trump’s duality. (Jim Franco/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)

As with the recent indictment of James Comey, the indictment was returned only because Trump replaced his own U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia with White House aide and loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience.

Trump told his AG, Pam Bondi, in a memo that James, like Comey, was “guilty as hell.” The Wall Street Journal claims that “Pam’s” memo was intended to remain secret.

Career prosecutors had decided there was not enough evidence to charge James, who filed a civil suit against candidate Trump for housing inflation that resulted in a fine that reached half a billion dollars — so outrageous that an appeals court threw it out. James also won his job by promising to take on Trump, calling him an “illegitimate” president.

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James has owned a home in Brooklyn for decades, and two years ago she bought a house in Norfolk, Virginia, with her niece.

Career prosecutors found little evidence that James had been dishonest in filling out the paperwork.

Media attention immediately shifted from Trump, the global peacemaker, to Trump, the crusader who stubbornly pursues a campaign of retaliation against his enemies.

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Just as he was receiving praise from around the world, Trump leaned into his own story.