MaKail Crawford
Oct 15, 2025
Rhetoric and Subtext in Donald Trump’s Address to the Israeli Parliament
The Politics of Performance
Throughout President Donald Trump's October 14, 2025 address to the Israeli Knesset he utilizes intimacy between constituents, the preaching of moral well-being, ideological cadence, symbolism, and structure to invoke pride, motivation, and militarism in his congregation through a sermon of strength. Of the subtexts of which he implores the most prominent five are: faith as legitimacy, family as diplomacy, war as virtue, economy as ethics, and continuity as victory. His speech, formally and politically centered on a new peace deal and the return of hostages, was delivered with the cadence of a sermon of strength. A sermon that blurred the line between religious ceremony and political triumph. Beneath the surface of celebration lay a deeper political subtext. Trump intends to cement his image as the gufgurehead of modern Middle Eastern peace while reframoing militarism as a divine path to prosperity. It's almost Crusade-esque. Where instead of going to war on the premise of religion he's subsuming responsibility of peace akin to his political AI iconography of him as the Pope. In doing so, he utilizes showmanship of political and religious theatrics to reinforce control and symbolism.
President Trump opens with reverence by invoking "the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob" which appeals to his audience as well as his own Abrahamic values and calling it a day in which "the sunrise[s] on a holy land finally at peace". Thus establishing the tone of hubris and postioning President Trump harbinger of light after "two years of darkness and captivity". What appears as reverence also functions as political theater. The language and enstillment of faith makes his policy achievements sound like fulfillment of prophecy. Standing ovations throughout the speech reinforce the atmosphere of shared deliverance from a "nightmare of depravity and death" (18:33) rather than standard diplomatic ingratiation.
"He's not easy to deal with but that's what makes him great...thank you very much, Bebe." (3:03)
The casual nickname and the joking tone signaled both closeness and control, a frequent rhetoric employment. Such tonal shifts assert charisma without overtly claiming superiority.
A defining American Presidential rhetorical habit reappeared via the "interruption and recovery" maneuver. When a protester storms the chambers and is subsequently escorted away Trump steps back, detaches, and remarks, "That was efficient...so back to Steve," (7:04); he transforms a potential disruption into humor and demonstrates composure. We see this same control and detached calmness when an Iraqi journalist throws a shoe at then sitting President Bush Jr. on Decemeber 14, 2008 during a press conference in Baghdad. As Bush nonchalantly waves off his security and the President of Baghdad as if gesturing, "Oh it's just a shoe" and President Trump embodies that same detachment when he steps away from the podium to observe the spectacle.
His anecdote about Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to Middle East, doubles as both praise and parable while simultaneously acting as an instrumental figure in peace negotiations. WItkoff, a businessman rather than a statesman, further symbolizing President Trump's personal appointment of friends , symbolizes President Trump's conviction and individual diplomacy and dealmaking outmatch traditional bureaucracy . In doing so, President Trump translates geopolitical complexity into familiar language of business success via human connection, persuasion, and the art of the deal.
From Witkoff, President Trump transitions to Ivanka (formerly Ivanka Trump) and Jared Kushner. He frames Ivanka's conversion to Judaism and marriage as a personal, religious, and geopolitical trinity. Beneath his quip, "it wasn't in the cards for me" lay a deliberate echo of ancient dynastic alliances like Cleopatra to Marc Antony, Helen to Agamemnon and so forth. That is, historical empires where marriages sealed peace between nations. The union of his once Christian daughter and a Jewish advisor symbolized a merging of American and Israeli destinies and the transfer and exchange of wealth and resources. It reinforces political theater as had Ivanka and Jared Kushner not been there, and if President Trump had not given remarks, and had the entire scene not been televised there'd be no global public acknowledgement of their union. The televised remarks gives stage to the theatrical politics.
Blending romance, religion, and diplomacy President Trump's recurring theme is televised that political order emerges not from institutional process but from the authority of family, loyalty, and faith. Remember the playground tease, "Well if you love it so much why don't you marry it?" President Trump would begrudgingly also hold it in reverence as he gives, "[a] special thanks to someone who truly loves Israel. In fact loves it so much that my daughter converts (he says with heavy gravity)....my daughter converted (he says in disbelief)..." (10:44 - 11:44) .
Midway through the speech, President Trump positions himself as both disruptor and successor. He contrasts his termination of the Iran Nuclear Deal with then sitting President Obama and President Biden's "disastrous" foreign policy which was not in favor of Israel according to President Trump. Yet, he simultaneously acknowledges that former President Obama was not far behind on the Abraham Accords. This moment of selective continuity served a dual purpose, it made the peace process appear historically inevitable all the while casting President Trump as the one who completed what predecessors merely began. Given his selective continuity one must wonder why he does not involve his Republican predecessor 44th President Bush in the game of predecessor compare and contrast.
In this way, President Trump reframes diplomatic progress as a legacy culminating in himself a rhetorical move that both flatters history and likens him to religious prophecy fulfillment as concluded in Abrahamic religions.
President Trump's pivot from warfare to reconstruction was both pragmatic and populist. He urges that funds "go to hospitals and AI" instead of "weapons and missiles," he likens peace to economic innovations. His line, "You're gonna need wealth to rebuild," distills his business and real estate acumen that financial prosperity, not ideology and political correctness, ensures peace. Moments of humor, such as references to luxury aviation, and telling Israeli Defense Force generals during the remarks that "we could get rich making movies" (21:36). These moments act as flashes of self-branding within the solemn setting. These asides blur diplomacy and showmanship, reflecting his instinctual ability tether grandeur to personal anecdote to achievements to future partner and allyships.
President Trump has always been forthright in his riches as a private citizen so there's no second. guessing in noticing how he touts participation on the Abraham Accords as financially rewarding. "They stayed because of loyalty and really good business, they made a lot of money by being part of the accord" (46:40). Loyalty becomes the currency for world peace and business. It gives the same energy as during the St. Louis 2016 Presidential Debate when then running candidate and private citizen Donald J. Trump attests to using the same benefits and tax breaks as Hillary Clinton and her constituents.
President Trump's conclusion echoes his established global cadence of moving from the national to the universal, the local to the divine. It's a rhetorical cadence that he vocally weaves throughout his closing. He does so in his address to the United Nations (53:56 - 54:!0) as well as his closing to the Israeli Knesset (1:03:50 - 1:04:27). Israel inevitably becomes the a "modern miracle," "the Abrahamic capital of the world," and the speech culminates in the triple benediction akin to the Three Fold Christian Amen, " God bless you, God bless America, and God bless the Middle East." This rhetorical trinity served as a political religious seal, blending American constitutional religion with global aspiration while also appealing to his host nation. His final line, "You'll be bigger, better, stronger, and more loving than ever before" mirrors the promotional hyperbole of his campaign slogans ds far back as the first term. It closes the loop between politics and performance.
Taken together these layers position President Trump not as a participant in a world politics but rather a preacher, an elected official who claims authorship and outcomes. He casts history as confirmation of his personal fulfillment of prophecy.
President Trump's Knesset address was more than a peace speech; it was a sermon in the theology of dealmaking. His recurring self-advertisement, "All I do is make deals. I've been making them all my life", turns negotiation into self-aggrandizing. Every anecdote, from Witkoff to Ivanka, from warfare to reconstruction, from Rubio to Miriam, reinforced his self-conception as both peacemaker, pawn maneuverer, and profit-maker.
By transforming policy into parable he recasts diplomacy as personal destiny. In doing so President Trump not only delivers an address of peace but reasserts the narrative that his leadership alone turns conflict into covenant. It is a peace built not on compromise but on capital and prosperity.
Quote Highlight Reel
"They want to make a deal. All I do is make deals. I've been making them all my life, I'm very good at it." - President Trump
"State of Israel is strong and will live and thrive forever...and that's why Israel will always be a valuable ally of America. I'm the best friend Israel has ever had." - President Trump
"And that's why I recognized the capital of Israel and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem." - President Trump
"Miriam's got $60 billion in the bank." (Note: Miriam Andelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, longtime Republican donor and supporter of Israeli causes.)
"Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon?" - President Trump, directed towards the President of Israel, referencing Prime Minister Netanyahu. (No pardon was given.)
"We make the best weapons in the world, and we've got a lot of them, and we've given a lot to Israel frankly." - President Trump
Trump believes that Palestine should "transition from terror and violence to exile the wicked forced of hatred in their midst."
He describes Gaza's future as one of "stability, safety, and economic development" so children could have " a better life after decades of horror."