Trump cares more about his hair than peace in the Middle East

Time Magazine’s front cover this week ran with the headline ‘His Triumph’, alongside a low-angled photograph of Donald Trump – the reader cast in a worshipper-like position looking up, his face lifted towards the heavens, bathed in blinding light that radiates behind him like a halo.

There is quite literally no way anyone could mistake this for anything other than a flattering cover, a PR win.

Except, of course, for the President himself.

Donald Trump’s biggest concern wasn’t whether his flimsy Israel-Gaza ‘peace deal’ might finally yield results. It was Time magazine’s photo choice.

While the world breathed a shaky, fragile sigh of relief, the POTUS was posting furious tirades about his barnet.

Lashing out via Truth Social that the photo used was ‘the Worst of All Time’, he went on to claim that Time had ‘disappeared my hair’ and added: ‘something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird!’

He ended his rant, slamming the image as ‘super bad’ and it ‘deserves to be called out’.

It would be funny if it weren’t so revealing. The man who calls himself the world’s greatest negotiator seems to care more about his reflection than reconciliation.

Yesterday should have been a day of hope – for the hostages released, the families finally reunited, for the Gazans who have survived unimaginable horror, and for the prospect, however slim, of an end to violence.

Instead, as usual, it became another episode of The Trump Show.

He turned a solemn diplomatic announcement into a shallow personal victory lap, with a procession of world leaders like extras brought on to inflate his ego.

Flirting with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, teasing Keir Starmer with the prospect of a speech before sending him back in line, and making jokey asides about who he did and didn’t like, the whole thing was a performance that leaders seemed only too willing to indulge. 

But the main problem here isn’t his misplaced ego, it’s that there was no substance behind this spectacle.

This isn’t a peace deal. It isn’t even a peace process.

It’s a shallow 20-point ceasefire and hostage agreement, devoid, in my view, of any meaningful content.

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As far as I can see, there’s no roadmap, no long-term timelines, no mechanisms for accountability, and no reference to the West Bank or East Jerusalem – both illegally occupied – and not one mention of a Palestinian state, now recognised by 80% of UN Members, including the UK.

Compare that with the world’s most enduring peace settlements.

The Good Friday Agreement – which ended decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland and has since become the gold standard for post-conflict diplomacy, stretched to 35 pages of consent, timelines, and compromise.

Trump’s so-called Gaza agreement? A few pages of bullet points. I’ve sent longer texts.

What’s being proposed risks entrenching colonisation. Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’, which will apparently oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, has seats designated for the President and Tony Blair, but no guarantee of Palestinian representation. 

In Trump’s threadbare plan, Israel, accused by the UN and the International Court of Justice of acts of genocide, is not required to acknowledge it, compensate, or be held to account – even though US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said West Bank settlements are ‘inconsistent with international law’.

There’s also no mention of lifting the thousand checkpoints that choke Palestinian life.

The message is clear: Palestinians are to be managed, not represented.

And yet, world leaders showed up for the photo-op. Presidents, prime ministers, ministers, even the head of FIFA – all appearing as props in a pageant designed to flatter one man’s vanity.

The ceasefire is welcome. But if the world’s relief gives Trump the boost he wants, he’ll use it to claim he alone brought peace to the Middle East.

The Trump plan offers a destination, but no journey. The difference between a peace process and a publicity stunt is what comes next, and right now, I can’t see that there’s anything next.

Meanwhile, the story moves on from the relief of hostages walking free to a man tweeting about how Time used a photo he didn’t like.

If he’s this obsessed with his hair, how can we trust him to care about the people under the rubble?

And what’s next for Ukraine? Promises to end the war ‘in 24 hours’ of becoming president in January have long been forgotten.

Trump now hints that his approach there would be similar to Gaza. But if yesterday is anything to go by, Putin can expect an easy ride.

Whether it’s Northern Ireland, Ukraine or Palestine, real peace demands detail, compromise and humility – all things Trump seems constitutionally incapable of.

His performance last night was the diplomatic equivalent of a selfie at a funeral: desperate, narcissistic, and faintly grotesque.

The Gaza ceasefire may hold for now, and every day it does is a gift. But the man claiming credit for it has already shown he’s more interested in the headlines than the hard work. 

Peace built on ego is no peace at all.

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