Defying the odds and expectations of many, President Donald Trump went to the Middle East and announced what many thought impossible -- a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and, hopefully, a path to peace in the Middle East.
As a part of getting both sides to agree to a ceasefire, they each had to give up the hostages and prisoners that had given them leverage in negotiations up until now. With Trump ostensibly leading the way, leaders of other countries in the region exerted their influence, too. We don't know what comes next, but watching weeping families reunite and cheering crowds in the streets gave both sides hope that maybe, hopefully, the worst is over.
As a part of announcing the ceasefire, the president also spoke at a Gaza summit, where he heaped praise on European and Arab leaders, even the ones he has battled in the past.
He called French President Emmanuel Macron "my friend" and warmly shook the hand of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "Is everything all good? It's very nice that you're here," Trump said.
He told Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni that she was beautiful and called Turkish president Recep Erdogan a "tough person" who is always there when he needs him. "He never lets me down."
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was also "my friend" who happens to run a country "with a very low crime rate," while Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice president of the United Arab Emirates, had terrific shoes and "a lot of cash, bundles of cash." You get the point. For everybody in the room with a role to play, Trump had something nice to say.
What if that version of Trump came back to the United States to run the country as well as he ran the peace process? He could start with Congress, where Republicans are in charge but battling with Democrats and presiding over an empty House chamber, an impotent Senate and a two-week government shutdown that is already longer, harder and uglier than it ever needed to be.
Instead of negotiating with Democrats to find an alternative they could all live with, Republicans stuck to their positions. They let government funding lapse, shut down the government and sent House members home to their districts indefinitely. The Senate remained in regular session but has voted over and over on funding bills that Republicans don't have the votes to pass.
While the House was in recess Monday, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, went to Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff's Atlanta office to record a campaign video of himself. In it, he called the senator Democrats' "errand boy" and gave Ossoff a "pink slip," since Collins is one of several Republicans running against Ossoff for his Senate seat next year.
But Ossoff was back in Washington, casting votes in the Senate and posting videos of his own, not about Republican House members, but about the Georgians about to experience triple-digit increases to their health insurance premiums if Congress fails to act soon.
If my conversations with exhausted and exasperated Georgians are any indication, Republicans would get far more votes if they figured out a way to fix the health care system in the country than "owning the libs" on social media ever will. Leading the way out of the government shutdown and running the country well for the next year and a half would be a sign of competence, not weakness.
And here's where Trump could come in.
Instead of insulting and demonizing Democrats, whose votes Republicans need to reopen the government, he could instead try to find a place where each side could give in and areas where they could agree.
The president just did the impossible of finding peace overseas. How about doing the same in America next?