We don’t want a vassal state and that’s not what Israel is. We don’t want a client state.

I mean, we’re really creating a peace plan and an infrastructure here where nothing existed even a week and a day ago.

If you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop.

I never said it was easy, but what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is going to hold and that we can actually build a better future in the entire Middle East.

We're not going to force anything on our Israeli friends when it comes to foreign troops on their soil.

It’s one thing to read about it, it’s one thing to talk with Jared and Steve on the phone about what’s going on on the ground.

This is not the end.

But I’m not going to do what the president of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult.

Can I say with 100% certainty that it's going to work? No, but you don't do difficult things by only doing what's 100% certain. You do difficult things by trying.

I want to say that there is this weird attitude I’ve sensed in the American media and the Western media, where there’s almost this desire to root for failure.

What we’ve seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold, and if we get from where we were a week ago to a long-term, durable peace between Israel and Gaza, there are going to be hills and valleys.

We are in a very good place. We're going to have to keep working on it.

There are not going to be American boots on the ground in Gaza.

But we’re going to keep on working at this process, and we’re going to keep on trying to bring the deceased hostages home.

Look, I think that we are one week into President Trump's historic peace plan in the Middle East, and things are going frankly better than I expected that they were.

It’s not the end. It is, in fact, exactly how this is going to have to happen when you have people who hate each other.

They want to keep the government shut down even though it would mean a lot of you would not get your pay check.

If we don’t pay our enlisted Marines, every bar in Southern California is going to go out of business, and we don’t want that.