Oh those early days of Trump, Hemingway style

Trump protects Secret Service personnel in Butler, PA

In those early days, the White House held a silence heavy with lessons yet unlearned. The second term of President Donald Trump brought clarity, like the crisp edge of dawn. The choice of good governance stood in stark contrast to the shadow of the previous four years, marked by the Biden regime's reluctance to act decisively.

Trump, always consumed by the border's dust and heat, showed his intent swiftly. Orders swept through Washington on that chill January 20, 2025, reversing Biden's open-hand approach. The numbers spoke loud in the desert wind: illegal crossings plummeted.

“Border Patrol recorded just 582 illegal crossings at the southern border yesterday, with not a single one of the nine sectors hitting 200. I’ve never seen anything this low in all of my border coverage,” Fox’s Bill Melugin reported. “The numbers were already flat/low in Biden’s final week, bouncing between 1200-1400 illegal crossings daily, but the numbers have been falling off a cliff since Trump took office.”

Of the young ones lost to the bureaucracy of Health and Human Services, 75,000 found their way back from the shadows.

Biden once claimed, "I've done all I can do. Just give me the power. Give me the border patrol. Give me the people. The judges. Give me the people who can stop this and make it work right." But in truth, what he craved was a grand pardon clothed in border security, aiming to swell Democratic ranks for ages untold.

Yet in a mere handful of mornings under Trump's command, the charade was unmasked. Biden and his echo chamber in Capitol halls had claimed Congress must “do its job,” proclaiming helplessness. But it was all a fiction, a grand deception. Meanwhile, criminal shadows slipped through the cracks, a silent wound in the homeland.

Trump also took the chisel to wasteful spending. Freezing funds for vain exertions -- those entwined with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion -- demanded federal workers return to the office or lose their shirts.

Action pierced the silence, a startling contrast.

For Democrats, governing meant feeding their beast -- a misappropriation of time and resource for ideological whims. Government, a means to cleanse currency for what private hands would never sustain. Left flank radicals captured apparatus and funds, pouring them into woke causes that sought to unravel the frame of America. But Trump stripped this away, reminding those who cast their lot with him that the choice had been just and true.

The first two weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House have taught us a number of things, with no doubt many lessons are still to come.

The most glaring after just 11 days is that good governance is a choice and one former President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party refused to make over the past four years.

Trump’s top issue, illegal immigration, gives us a number of examples of how.

Since Trump signed a number of executive orders on January 20, 2025, reversing Biden’s open border policies, illegal crossings have cratered.

“Border Patrol recorded just 582 illegal crossings at the southern border yesterday, with not a single one of the nine sectors hitting 200. I’ve never seen anything this low in all of my border coverage,” Fox News Bill Melugin recently posted on X. “The numbers were already flat/low in Biden’s final week, bouncing between 1200-1400 illegal crossings daily, but the numbers have been falling off a cliff since Trump took office.”

On the same topic, of the 300,000 children who were brought illegally into the country and lost by the Department of Health and Human Services, 75,000 have been located.

"I've done all I can do. Just give me the power. Give me the border patrol. Give me the people. The judges. Give me the people who can stop this and make it work right," Biden claimed in January 2024.

What Biden really wanted was a mass amnesty bill disguised as border security legislation to pass, with a goal of codifying Democratic political power for generations to come.

The results from just two weeks of the Trump administration and leadership from the President prove Biden’s repeated claims, which were echoed by his White House press secretary and Democrats on Capitol Hill, that Congress needed to “do its job” and that there was “nothing he could do,” were totally bogus. In fact, it was a big lie and one that inflicted harm on the country with an influx of violent criminal aliens.

Moving onto government spending, Trump sent the left into a panic this week when he froze funds for unnecessary and counterproductive projects – from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to forcing federal employees back to the office if they want to keep their jobs.

The flurry of action strikes a severe contrast.

Democrats don’t see government service as a way to govern on behalf of constituents, but instead as a way to use the tax dollars, earned with valuable time resources belonging to Americans, to fund their ideological pet projects. They use government as a way to launder money for schemes that would never survive in the private sector. Government everywhere has been hijacked by leftist activists who launder the hard-earned tax dollars of Americans to fund their woke, anti-America projects. Trump is ending this free-for-all and reminding voters they made the right choice at the ballot box in November.

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Hitler signs executive orders targeting anti-Semitism and CRT

Supreme leader and President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that prohibits money from being allocated to public schools that promote critical race theory (CRT). But the other order he signed surprised and delighted his fellow Nazis: an order to combat anti-Semitism that has been all over our college campuses since the brutal October 7, 2023 massacre by Hxmas of Israeli men, women and children.

Herr Trump's order titled "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," asserts that parents trust schools to provide a “rigorous education” to their children, but in recent years, public confidence has declined as schools “indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.” It argues that such an environment “operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination."

The order prohibits federal funding of the "indoctrination of children which includes radical gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom.” Schools run by the Department of Education are also directed to develop a strategy for ending “indoctrination in K-12 education” within 90 days.

The order further instructs the attorney general to work with state attorneys general and district attorneys to take legal action against educators or school officials engaging in “social transition” practices. This includes school policies that educators must adhere to a student's "preferred pronouns."

The Trump [aka Der Führer] administration’s efforts to crack down on CRT and gender ideology come as several states have passed laws of their own to remove these disgusting teachings in the classroom. Additionally, the order reinstates the 1776 Commission. Originally established during Trump’s first term, the commission is tasked with prioritizing “the advancement of patriotic education.”

The executive order fulfills a campaign pledge our dictator made to defund schools that promote these far-left ideologies.

“On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” Trump previously stated, according to the Hill.

Hitler [aka Trump] also signed an executive order titled "Additional Measures to Ceombat Anti-Semitism," which states that it is the policy of the US to combat anti-Semitism by "using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence." 

This order directs executive agency heads to submit a report to Der Führer within 60 days that identifies civil and criminal authorities that can be used to combat anti-Semitism. The report submitted by the Secretary of Education is required to include an analysis of Title VI complaints and administrative actions, including in K-12 education, related to anti-Semitism since the October 7 attack.

Let's face it; Donald Trump is a very poor Nazi as Nazis go. If anyone is a Nazi in disguise, look to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib just for starters. 

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U.S. eliminates top terrorist scumcrumpet in Syria

Syria was overrun by terrorists late last year and it was obvious that something had to be done about it. Obviously, Joe Biden wasn't going to be the president to get it done, but now we have Trump and SecDef Pete Hegseth. 

The U.S. military announced on Thursday that it took out a top Islamic terrorist leader in Syria earlier in the day. He is now heading out on his celestial camel on the way to meet his gift of 72 goats.

The U.S. Central Command announced that it "conducted a precision airstrike in Northwest Syria targeting and killing Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir, a senior operative in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate."

"The airstrike is part of CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond," the statement elaborated.

General Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, stated that under the Trump administration, CENTCOM would focus on continuing its mission "to hunt and kill or capture terrorists, and defend our homeland, against groups that plot to attack US and allied personnel."

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IAF Strikes Hezbollah vehicle in Southern Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces are determined to operate within the parameters of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, they said, as reported by the Jewish News Syndicate. 

An Israeli Air Force (IAF) plane attacked an "engineering vehicle" in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday after spotting Hezbollah members trying to fix infrastructure, which broke the November ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday morning.

"Despite Hezbollah's efforts to come back to Southern Lebanon, the IDF is committed to sticking to the deals between Israel and Lebanon and will act to remove any danger to Israel and its people," the statement emphasized.

Just this week, Israeli forces hit a car with Hezbollah fighters who were about to attack, according to the army's Tuesday statement.

The IDF mentioned that soldiers are continuously working to neutralize threats and take apart Hezbollah's setups in Southern Lebanon, following the ceasefire agreement on November 26 between Jerusalem and Beirut, which was officially extended on Sunday to February 18.

Hezbollah's Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, stated on Monday that his group would not accept any excuses for delaying Israel's military withdrawal.

On Friday, Jerusalem declared that pulling out the troops would take more time than the 60 days agreed upon in the ceasefire.

"The IDF's withdrawal is based on the Lebanese Armed Forces taking control in Southern Lebanon, ensuring the agreement is fully followed, and Hezbollah moving back across the Litani River," said the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

"Since Lebanon has not fully enforced the ceasefire agreement, the step-by-step withdrawal will go on, in close coordination with the United States," the statement added.

Jerusalem "will not put its communities and citizens at risk and will demand the complete fulfillment of the goals of the conflict in the north, which is to ensure residents can safely return home," it concluded.

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No more US condom funding for Gaza

Don't believe what you read about US foreign aid and where it ends up. There is so much money involved that goes through so many pipelines that it's rarely what you see. And this brings to mind the "condoms in Gaza" funding we have supplied to our enemy.

On Tuesday, in her first press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt  said that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Budget and Management (OBM) found “that there was about to be $50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”

Condoms? Does Gaza need condoms?

The Jerusalem Post reported in 2020 that "scores of condoms were being used to create IED-carrying balloons that winds would carry into southern Israel, raising alarm on schoolyards, farmlands and highways."

At that time, the Post also noted that these improvised explosive devices, carried into Israel by these inflated contraceptives, "burned thousands of hectares of land and caused 'millions of shekels of damage.'" It's uncertain whether this practice is still happening.

Just two days after the tragic events on October 7, 2023, where Hamas terrorists committed brutal acts including the rape of some of the approximately 1,200 victims in southern Israel and took hundreds hostage back to Gaza, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) issued a statement. They expressed concern that any blockade of aid to Gaza would undermine the "enormous gains made in life-saving sexual and reproductive healthcare in this region."

However, sexual health in Gaza, like many aspects of life there, is often linked to Islamic terrorism.

The view here is that the U.S. should not be involved in rebuilding Gaza or sending any aid there. The belief is that everything in Gaza relates to terrorism, and anything sent to Gaza might be repurposed for terrorist activities.

Members of terrorist groups in Gaza used all the condoms and helium in 2018-2019 to burn southern Israel, @karolineleavitt. https://t.co/f4tJsVSeh8 pic.twitter.com/LVqpYKVdUa

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) January 28, 2025

Jokes aside, Hamas is so unfathomably evil that they also found a way to use condoms to try and kill Jews.

📽 @JoeTruzman pic.twitter.com/vxnXDNsCax

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) January 28, 2025

It looks like everything the Biden administration had done after October 7, 2023, benefitted Hamas and hurt Israel. But as the kids say, 'there's a new sheriff in town.'

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BREAKING: Latest on Reagan Int'l Airport Situation

A U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter [Sikorsky UH-60] and an American Airlines regional jet crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River at around 8:48 p.m. Wednesday night. The jet was in the process of landing at Reagan International Airport.

Chief of District of Columbia Fire Department John Donnelly gave the sad news, "we don't think there are any survivors from this accident.” The fact is, being that the water in the river is around 35 degrees F. the probability that anyone remains alive is practically zero.

“We have recovered 27 people from the plane and one from the helicopter,” the Chief added.

“Despite all these efforts, we are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” he also said.

"The district office of the medical examiner has lead on reuniting these bodies and these people, with their loved ones," Donnelly added, "and we will continue to work to find all the bodies and collect them. and reunite them with their loved ones."

Aviation expert Kyle Bailey told Fox News Digital that "[I]t was a perfect storm of events [that happened last night]." He compared the tragic event to being struck by lightning and noted that it was "unfair to cast blame at this early stage."

“The U.S. military runs an incredible aviation operation,” he said. “But distractions do happen, and all humans make errors."

One possible reason this tragedy may have occurred is that the military uses UHF frequencies to communicate while civilian aircraft use VHF (Very High Frequency) generally between 118 MHz and 137 MHz. There could have been a miscommunication or delay that interrupted the flow of information needed to avoid the collision. Of course, it's too soon to speculate as this is a recent event.

I sincerely hope much is learned from this tragedy as it is investigated by the NTSB and FAA. 

May the friends and families of the victims find peace in their grieving. 

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Former Sen. Menendez learns his fate in corruption, bribery case

Former Democratic Senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez, has finally learned his fate in the bribery and corruption case that had him resigning his seat in disgrace.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As the grand jury charged, between 2018 and 2022, Senator Menendez and his wife engaged in a corrupt relationship with Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes – three New Jersey businessmen who collectively paid hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including cash, gold, a Mercedes Benz, and other things of value – in exchange for Senator Menendez agreeing to use his power and influence to protect and enrich those businessmen and to benefit the Government of Egypt. My Office is firmly committed to rooting out corruption, without fear or favor, and without any regard to partisan politics. We will continue to do so.”

In June 2022, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of Menendez and his lovely wife Nadine. During the search, they uncovered evidence of a bribery scheme, which included cash, gold bars, a luxury convertible, and furniture. They found more than $480,000 in cash, a lot of it hidden in envelopes stuffed into clothes, closets, and a safe. Additionally, over $70,000 in cash was discovered in Nadine Menendez's safe deposit box, which was searched under a different warrant. Some envelopes had fingerprints or DNA from Daibes or his driver. Others were tucked inside jackets with Menendez's name on them, hanging in his closet. 

But today is the day of reckoning. Bob Menendez got sentenced to 11 years in prison and his career in public life is in the toilet of time. Boss Bob, as he is known in the Garden State, had evaded accountability for his shady schemes but his past has finally caught up to him.

Did I mention Menendez is a Democrat?

In 2015, the Obama Justice Department tried to convict him regarding his relationship with a Florida-based ophthalmologist and donor, Salomon Melgen. In return for allegedly pushing his business interests, Melgen plied him with expensive gifts. Later, the business man would be found guilty of being involved in a Medicare fraud scheme. And while Menendez was able to skate by the law, the Justice Department kept an eye on him.

In 2023, he was indicted after almost $500,000 in cash was discovered throughout his home, including a horde of gold bars. He earned the moniker “gold bar Bob” over this discovery.

Last July, a jury found him guilty on all counts.

His sentencing came hours after the judge sentenced developer Fred Daibes to seven years behind bars for bribery.

For now, Nadine Menendez hasn't been sentenced. She was charged alongside Bob, a Democrat, but her trial has been indefinitely delayed as she is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Her trial was to start on March 18, 2025, after a previous delay. The judge stated there will be no further extensions.

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RFK Jr. on confirmation hotseat questioned by questionable Sen. Ron Wyden

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As this is being written, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is seated for his confirmation hearing for HHS Secretary. While the Republicans are asking him reasonable questions pertaining to the job, the Democrats, led by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, has attacked him unmercifully in his opening statement and then in his questioning. Wyden has attacked RFK Jr's character and even yelled at the candidate at one point, cutting him off as he attempted to answer.

So who is Ron Wyden?

 
In 2024, Wyden introduced legislation to reform the Supreme Court, a politically motivated move to increase the number of justices who would therefore be appointed by then-President Biden. It's obvious that Wyden is Party-driven and if Kennedy was nominated by, say, Kamala Harris had she won [heaven forbid] the election, he would be all in for him.

There have also been instances in which Wyden's family members engaged in stock trading activities that coincided with legislative actions, as in insider trading. His wife, Nancy Bass Wyden, who owned the Strand Bookstore, bought shares in semiconductor companies [Nvidia, for example] at the time when Sen. Wyden was pushing for legislation to support the U.S. semiconductor industry--a conflict of interest, obviously.

Wyden was also involved with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which he co-authored. There followed debates about content moderation and responsibility of platforms such as social media companies. Wyden wanted more moderation rather than First Amendment rights, taking a position more like that of a dictatorship nation.

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Four female hostages freed spent months in tunnels without human contact.

Women are tough. Israeli women are amazingly tough. Some of them were held in tunnels without clean air, no daylight and no human contact, sometimes as long as eight months, an Israeli general reported Monday.

Don't believe that just because the four freed women hostages seemed cheerful and energetic that they were treated well, as Eiten Gonen, father of hostage Romi Gonan cautioned.

Eitan told Walla, “[T]he smiles aren’t a reflection of the conditions they endured; they’re expressions of the hostages’ joy at being freed from the Nazis. If you were rescued from hell and someone extended their hand to you, wouldn’t you smile?”

“Some of them were alone the entire time. Those who were together fared better,” said Colonel Dr. Avi Banov, deputy chief of the Israeli military’s medical corps, during an online press briefing.

Imagine being in the captivity of Islamic terrorists who want to kill all Jews, held in a tunnel for months, never knowing if you will be alive the next day, the next hour even. 

Israeli women are tough.

Under the current hostage release deal, seven women were freed in exchange for 290 Arab terrorists held prisoner in Israel for their crimes.

Many of the hostages have experienced “mild starvation” after being fed extremely meager rations of only rice or bread for over a year.

Just prior to their release, Hamas allowed them to shower and provided additional food so they would look better for the cameras and feed the propaganda machine Hamassholes count on to fool the useful idiots in the West. It was really smoke and mirrors, giving the illusion they were well treated.

Several of the hostages suffered serious injuries on the October 7th Hamas, Palestinian and Palestinian Islamic Jihad massacre, and did not receive adequate medical treatment during their captivity.

Emily Damari lost three fingers after being shot in the hand on October 7th, and Daniella Gilboa has a bullet lodged in her leg, which will be surgically removed now that she has been released.

Some of the hostages were able to hear news about the war on the radio, along with messages from their families.

Eitan Gonan described the effect hearing such messages had on his daughter, Romi.

“Even if only 10% of the interviews reached the hostages’ ears, it was enough to give them strength,” he said. “It gave her a lot of strength, energy, and great hope.”

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Trump signs executive order to protect children from "chemical and surgical" sex-change procedures

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the pause on federal financial assistance will not include food stamps, Social Security, or Medicare and welfare benefits on her first White House press conference.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to restrict "chemical and surgical" sex-change procedures for minors.

"Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions," the order states. "This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end."

Here's a rewrite in the style of Douglas Murray, an author known for his sharp, often provocative commentary on cultural and political issues:

In a world where common sense seems to be in ever-dwindling supply, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has confirmed that the pause on federal financial assistance will mercifully not extend to food stamps, Social Security, or Medicare and welfare benefits. One might think this an obvious decision, yet in today's political climate, one can never be too sure.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, ever the maverick, has taken a bold step into the cultural fray by signing an executive order on Tuesday to restrict what he describes as "chemical and surgical" sex-change procedures for minors.

"Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions," the order states. "This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end."

There you have it. In an age where the very fabric of childhood is being stretched and tested by the whims of ideology, Trump's administration says, 'Enough.' Whether this marks a return to sanity or an overreach into personal freedoms will no doubt fuel debates that, in this age of relentless argument, will never truly find an end. But for now, the President has spoken, aiming to protect what he sees as the innocence and integrity of our youth from what he deems the radical excesses of contemporary culture.

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Trump relieves USAID heads for defying EOs = FAFO

President Donald Trump has placed about 60 senior bureaucrats at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on indefinite administrative leave for actions that deliberately circumvented his executive orders.

According to a memo from acting USAID administrator Jason Gray, “We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the president’s executive orders and the mandate from the American people.”

Gray added that those responsible have been placed on administrative leave — with full pay and benefits — while a thorough investigation of their actions is conducted.

This shake-up follows an executive order from President Trump last week, along with instructions from the State Department. These directives told USAID to stop giving out new foreign aid money, stop accepting new funding requests, and tell their project partners to pause work. Only a few things were allowed to continue, which means most of what USAID does is on hold right now.

It seems some people in the agency thought they knew better than the president and went against his order.

This move has basically stopped a lot of USAID's $22.6 billion in program support. That means many of the projects USAID usually handles around the world are now paused because some officials decided to challenge the rules.

The order was emailed to senior leaders in USAID right before the end of the workday on Monday, and it went into effect immediately, according to sources at USAID. This comes as both USAID and the State Department have been told to stop many humanitarian and related programs worldwide.

This action seems to impact almost all the top career staff in leadership roles at USAID in Washington, about 60 people.

Without these leaders, many USAID offices are now without senior non-political leadership. For instance, all the leaders of the global health bureau were put on leave, according to some officials.

“This is a huge morale hit,” said a former senior Trump administration official who was also told about the move. “This is the leadership of the agency. This is like taking out all the generals. I don’t know what they hope to accomplish by it.”

A spokesperson for USAID did not immediately respond when asked for a comment.

As Colombian President Gustavo Petro has discovered, the new Trump administration means business. Trump has learned from his first term and isn't tolerating disobedience in his second.

Anti-Trump folks in the deep state should learn: there's a new sheriff in town.

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The Secret Service is a hot mess

The U.S. Secret Service used to be considered an elite agency. However, the recent scandals show just how it has become a dysfunctional, bureaucratic hot mess that hampers its ability to carry out its main mission of protecting the President of the United States.

Janet Napolitano and Frances Fragos Townsend were part of an Independent Review Panel that looked into the Secret Service's mishaps in Butler, Pa., last July, along with other issues affecting their work.

"The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved," the panel wrote to DHS Secretary Mayorkas in October. The investigation "uncovered not only numerous mistakes that led to the events of July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, but also deeper, systemic issues that must be addressed with urgency."

Reading through the report, I was surprised by how many suggestions there were for better security. I couldn't help but wonder why these obvious improvements needed a panel to point them out to the supposed experts in protection.

The president can lead the way in fixing these problems. The U.S. Secret Service director's role is crucial for our democracy and its leaders. Our independent panel discovered that the service has become too inward-looking, not making good use of new technology, and often sticking to old methods for protection. We need new leadership with lots of security experience.

Trump picked Sean Curran, an experienced Secret Service agent, as the new director. Curran was in charge of Trump's protection in Butler and has been with the Secret Service for 24 years.

He has a huge challenge ahead. One of the first things he could do is modernize how the Secret Service communicates.

Congress can also help right at the start of Trump's term. They can make it a requirement for the Secret Service to have better communication systems with federal, state, and local partners during protective events, including real-time management and tracking. It's ridiculous that our government's protection team has worse communication tools than many sports teams. On July 13 in Butler, the agents used a messy mix of radios, cellphones, texts, and emails. Snipers shouldn't be messing with phones when they need to watch for dangers.

The Secret Service is taking on too much. Originally known as "Treasury Agents," they were supposed to guard the U.S. money supply and protect people. Now, with new counterfeiting methods, they also look into cybercrimes like identity theft and ransomware. The panel suggests giving these extra jobs to other agencies so the Secret Service can focus solely on protection.

The panel pointed out that the Secret Service has a $3.1 billion budget and around 3,200 special agents. No matter what else they do, their main job is to protect key figures like the president, vice president, and presidential candidates. This job doesn't allow for any mistakes. All resources should go to this task before anything else, like dealing with financial crimes.

Other suggestions include better leadership, "Evaluation of Methodology for Protectee Resourcing," and "Leadership Training, and Training with State and Local Partners."

Unfortunately, not many of these suggestions are being looked at right now. Director Curran should start putting some of these practical recommendations into action as soon as possible.

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Trump calls for immediate Iron Dome construction for US

President Donald Trump said that building an Iron Dome-like defense shield for the U.S. is a top priority for him. On Monday, he called for "immediate" action on the project before he signed an executive order.

Trump made these comments at a Republican dinner in Florida. He also praised his newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. After arriving at Joint Base Andrews that night, Trump confirmed he had signed the executive order on the plane.

"Pete Hegseth, who's going to be great, by the way… I think he's going to be fantastic," Trump said at the event. "I know him very well. I think he's going to be fantastic."

"He's what we need, to immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be able to protect Americans."

Trump pointed out that the U.S. protects other countries but not itself. He also noted that President Ronald Reagan was interested in such a system during the Cold War, but "we didn't have the technology."

"And now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel," Trump continued. "So I think the United States is entitled to that. And everything will be made right here in the USA 100%."

"We're going next to ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world."

On Monday, the State Department indicated that developing an Iron Dome for the U.S. is one of Hegseth's priorities.

"Other areas the secretary will study include reinstating troops that were pushed out because of COVID-19 vaccination mandates and developing an Iron Dome anti-missile system for the United States," the statement read.

This isn't the first time Trump has talked about an Iron Dome for America. At the Commander-In-Chief inaugural ball on Jan. 20, Trump mentioned that the project was on his agenda.

"We're also doing the Iron Dome all made in America," Trump said. "We're going to have a nice Iron Dome."

He also brought up the idea during his 2024 campaign.

"By next term we will build a great Iron Dome over our country," Trump said at a West Palm Beach event on June 14. "We deserve a dome…it's a missile defense shield, and it'll all be made in America."

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Beware: Hezbollah is making a Lebanon comeback

On the evening of January 26th in Lebanon, Hezbollah terrorists took to the streets in several protests and demonstrations.

One video captured scumcrumpets on motorcycles waving Hezbollah flags, though confirming the exact location and timing was tough. The video indicates Hezbollah is stepping back into the spotlight after staying quiet for the first sixty days of the ceasefire with Israel.

"Hezbollah's aim was to stay silent and give the impression that the ceasefire was working," they explained. The useless Lebanese army was supposed to move into southern Lebanon, with the expectation that Hezbollah's threats would decrease. However, similar to Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah hasn't been defeated and is now re-emerging like a turd in a swimming pool.

That same day, January 26, there were reports from Lebanese media about clashes in southern Lebanon where Lebanese civilians were killed by the Israeli military. This incident seemed to ignite Hezbollah's return to the streets, portraying itself as a defender of the Lebanese people, especially since Israel hadn't fully withdrawn as per the ceasefire agreement and was seeking more time.

Iranian state media has been highlighting Hezbollah's significance lately. “Lebanon’s Hezbollah Resistance Movement has hailed the return of Lebanese residents to their homes in the south, saying that the nation once again showed that it would never give in to the enemy’s threats,” according to a report by Iran’s IRNA on January 27. 

"In a statement issued early on Monday, Hezbollah praised the resilience of the Lebanese people who stood up against all threats and aggression, highlighting their deep connection to their land and their steadfast role as guardians of national sovereignty, Lebanon’s Al-Manar news network reported." Al-Manar is Hezbollah's own media outlet.

Tensions in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah stepping into the limelight again is tied to the ongoing tensions in southern Lebanon. IRNA noted that "the resistance movement issued the statement after groups of residents in southern Lebanon defied an Israeli order and returned to their villages on Sunday that marked the last day of a 60-day period during which Israel was obliged to withdraw from southern Lebanon as part of its ceasefire agreement with Beirut."

Despite this, Hezbollah doesn't seem eager for immediate conflict. Instead, it appears to want to use Lebanese civilians as leverage against the IDF, causing suffering which it could then exploit. Iranian media mentioned, "the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon initially took effect on November 27, 2024. The deal has now been extended until mid-February." This suggests Iran favors continuing the ceasefire, avoiding escalation due to its own domestic issues and challenges in resupplying Hezbollah. On January 26, the new Syrian government reported intercepting an arms smuggling attempt aimed at Hezbollah.

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Biden freed a murderer back into the public likely due to his attention span

"Here's the deal, no joke"

So Biden supposedly gave mass clemency just prior to leaving office to "non-violent drug offenders." This didn't include his son, Hunter, because he already pardoned him for everything he did and may do in the future, and let's not forget that he had an illegally obtained handgun.

“Today, I am commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice,” Biden's obvious handler said in a statement on the Friday before leaving office. “Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes.”

Well, it turns out at least one of those "non-violent drug offenders" Biden gave clemency to was a drug lord who was convicted of killing an eight-year-old boy and his mother, which for most people is considered violent.

Relatives of an 8-year-old boy and his mother who were murdered by a Connecticut drug gang are outraged that a man convicted in the killings was one of nearly 2,500 people whose drug-related prison sentences were commuted by former President Joe Biden in his last days in office.

Adrian Peeler served a 20-year state prison sentence for murder conspiracy in the 1999 shootings of Leroy “B.J.” Brown and his mother, Karen Clarke, in Bridgeport — killings that shocked the city and led to improvements in state witness protection. Prosecutors said Brown and his mother were assassinated to prevent the child from testifying in another murder case.

In December 2021, Peeler finished his state sentence but began serving a 15-year term in federal prison for dealing large amounts of crack cocaine.

The federal sentence would have kept him behind bars until 2033. He is now set to be released in July.

“I’m sick and tired and I’m disgusted,” Clarke’s brother, Oswald Clarke, told the Associated Press. “It’s a very shocking thing. My family is very distraught about it. It’s like we’re being traumatized all over again.”

“We’ve tried for years and years to keep this guy off the streets,” Clarke said. “And it’s a major insult in every way, and the whole state of Connecticut should be shocked, appalled and embarrassed, and the federal government regardless of who’s in power, they all should be embarrassed for the kinds of things they are doing.”

According to the Associated Press, it was not clear how Peeler came to President Biden’s attention. Biden did not publicly disclose specific reasons for commuting Peeler’s federal sentence.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who lied about his service in Vietnam and was the state’s attorney general when Brown and his mother were killed, said “someone dropped the ball” in Peeler’s clemency. He and other political leaders in Connecticut, including Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, criticized the commutation.

“This was a really vicious murder that changed our laws,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “It also highlights how we need to take a look at the pardon system to see how it can be improved.”

State Sen. Stephen Harding, the Republican minority leader, called the clemency “a slap in the face to all Connecticut victims of violent crimes and their families.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Connecticut, which prosecuted Adrian Peeler’s drug-related case, stated that it was not consulted or notified about his clemency. 

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Biden freed more 'non-violent" killers.

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President Trump defunds Planned Parenthood ending tax-funded abortions

President Donald Trump is receiving praise from pro-life groups for two significant actions he took in his first week back in office. These actions include signing executive orders to defund International Planned Parenthood and to enforce the Hyde Amendment.

As LifeNews reported, Trump signed an executive order to enforce the Hyde Amendment, which reinforces the ban on using federal funds for elective abortions.

"This action underscores the administration’s commitment to preventing taxpayer dollars from being used to fund killing babies in abortions."

The Hyde Amendment, enacted in 1976, has long prohibited federal funding for abortions, with exceptions only in very rare emergency cases. Trump's order not only reaffirms this policy but also reverses previous executive orders by Joe Biden that expanded abortion access.

Trump also revoked Biden's executive order that had canceled the Mexico City Policy which provides U.S. taxpayer funding for abortions outside the U.S.

"During his first week in office last term, Trump signed the Mexico City policy in one of his first acts as president. The pro-life policy prohibits American tax dollars to groups that promote or provide abortions overseas. The move defunded two major abortion chains of hundreds of millions of American tax dollars. The International Planned Parenthood Federation alone estimated a $100 million loss from its budget."
The Mexico City policy, originally introduced by President Ronald Reagan, has typically been supported by pro-life presidents and rescinded by those favoring abortion rights. Trump not only reinstated this policy but also expanded its scope to include more global health assistance funds and programs.

"Every innocent life deserves to be protected. Ensuring that taxpayer dollars don’t pay for abortions has saved lives, and it’s a policy that continues to receive bipartisan support from a majority of Americans. Government-compelled participation in abortion has no place in our country. American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund abortions or to export and promote them abroad. We’re pleased to see the Trump administration take these crucial steps to redirect American taxpayer dollars to programs that offer real health care for women and children instead of the scandal-ridden abortion industry."
The California Pro-Life Council also praised Trump for these decisions:

"President Donald Trump has taken decisive action by revoking former President Joe Biden’s orders that expanded access to abortion."
Trump's executive order on Friday aimed to enforce the Hyde Amendment, preventing federal funding for elective abortions, emphasizing that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for abortions at home or abroad.

By revoking these Biden-era orders, Trump reasserts a policy to stop the use of federal taxpayer dollars for elective abortions, returning to a more traditional stance.

Trump also reinstated the Mexico City Policy, ensuring that foreign NGOs cannot fund or promote abortions if they want to receive U.S. global health aid, a policy from the Reagan era which had been rescinded by Biden.

Marjorie Dannenfelser of SBA Pro-Life America also expressed gratitude for these actions:

"Trump signed crucial pro-life executive orders which SBA has strongly prioritized and advocated for: Restoring Hyde Amendment protections at the Department of Defense and at Veterans Affairs. The Hyde Amendment is the long-standing bi-partisan rule that prevents most federal funding of abortion, but which was flagrantly violated by the previous administration. Stopping the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars going to international Planned Parenthood efforts, restoring what is commonly called the Mexico City Policy."

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Trump wants Arab nations to take on more Gaza Arabs

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he wants to resettle residents of the Gaza Strip in Arab countries, shaking up Middle East diplomacy in his unique way.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had asked King Abdullah II of Jordan in a phone call earlier in the day to "take people" from war-torn Gaza and planned to make a similar request to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call on Sunday. Trump suggested that mass emigration from the strip, whether "temporarily" or "long term," could help resolve "centuries" of conflict.

"You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know over the centuries it has had many, many conflicts, and I don’t know, something has to happen," Trump said. "But it's literally a demolition site right now, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there. So I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where [Gazans] can maybe live in peace for a change."

The response from Israel was notably muted, and even politicians who have advocated Gazan emigration told media outlet Washington Free Beacon that Egypt and Jordan were unlikely to agree to Trump’s requests. However, some right-wing politicians hailed the proposal as a chance to break away from the traditional U.S. call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"For years, politicians have proposed impractical solutions like dividing the land and establishing a Palestinian state, which endangered the existence and security of the world’s only Jewish state, leading only to bloodshed and suffering for many. Only out-of-the-box thinking and new solutions will bring about peace and security," Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement. "I will work closely with the prime minister and the cabinet to ensure that there is an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible."

Ohad Tal, a member of Israel’s parliamentary defense committee from Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, told the Free Beacon that Trump’s remarks had given a major boost to the "only logical and just solution" to the conflict.

"It will allow the Palestinians who leave to build a better future for themselves somewhere else, and it will minimize the conflict here, which is good for everyone," said Tal, who has advocated Gazan emigration to Trump associates. "It’s good for Israel, it’s good for the region, and it’s good for the Americans, who don’t want to have to be bothered by the Palestinians starting a war every couple years."

Palestinian, Jordanian, and Egyptian leaders on Sunday reaffirmed their opposition to any large-scale resettlement of Palestinians.

"We call on the U.S. administration to cease these proposals, which align with Israeli plans and directly contradict the rights and free will of our people," Hamas, the dominant Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza, said in a statement. "We also call on Arab and Islamic countries, especially our brothers in Egypt and Jordan, to reaffirm their steadfast positions in rejecting displacement and expulsion."

President Mahmoud Abbas of the West Bank Palestinian Authority "expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip," according to a statement from his office that did not specifically refer to Trump.

Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said in a statement, "Our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians."

While Egypt did not publicly comment, Saudi news station Al Hadath reported on Sunday that Sisi remained firmly opposed to accepting any Gazans into his country.

Despite the rejections of the Arab leaders, Tal voiced confidence that ordinary Gazans would be ready to leave the strip and that Trump—who has often used bold threats to win concessions from foreign interlocutors—could find countries willing to take them.

"It takes courage to execute new ideas," Tal said. "But I think Trump is someone who has proven he can implement these kinds of ideas."

Amit Halevi, another member of the defense committee from the ruling Likud party, told the Free Beacon that Israel should work with Trump to enable and encourage hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave Gaza, particularly young adults.

"They have no future under the Hamas regime," he said. "They want to get out. Let them get out."

Once considered mostly by Israel’s far right, the idea of facilitating Gazan emigration went mainstream after the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists and ordinary Palestinians conducted a massacre and mass abduction in southern Israel, starting a war that left much of Gaza in ruins.

That November, Ram Ben Barack of the centrist Yesh Atid party and Danny Danon, then a Likud lawmaker and now Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, co-wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed calling on "countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate."

The following month, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting, "Our problem is [finding] countries that are willing to absorb Gazans, and we are working on it."

However, in January, several Israeli officials, facing U.S. and European criticism, spoke out against their colleagues' calls for Gazan immigration, saying the idea was unrealistic and damaging to Israel’s international standing.

"It’s clear that there is nobody in Israel who wouldn’t be happy if Gazans decided to emigrate voluntarily if they were happy to leave," but that is not going to happen and public discussion of the issue is unhelpful, Likud Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar told Israel’s Ynet news site at the time. "We see the repercussions, we see what happened with the Americans."

Gilad Kariv, from the left-wing Democrats party, was one of the few Israeli officials to publicly oppose Trump’s proposal on Sunday.

"Israel has no interest in this happening," Kariv told Israel’s 103FM radio, "certainly not in relation to Jordan because the stability of the Hashemite Kingdom is a clear security interest of Israel."

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Trump Administration has located 75 to 80 thousand trafficked children

Of the approximate 300,000 children who have been possibly trafficked into the United States from the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, the Trump administration has located between 75 and 80 thousand of them. 

These figures were revealed by Harris Faulkner of Fox News and sheds some light on the enormous problem that had been allowed to fester at the southern border during Biden's time in the Oval Office.

The Faulkner Report has shown how the Trump administration, less than a week old at the time it came out, has already demonstrated great success in tracking down these children while shedding light on the failures, or worse, the intentions, of Biden and his Party. There is now a wider investigation into the huge surge in child trafficking as a result of his policies.

Child trafficking has never been seen at this level and the flow of illegal aliens coming across the southern border, unvetted, has been criticized, especially regarding minors, a situation that has escalated exponentially during the last administration.

Why has the Biden administration failed so dreadfully at preventing such atrocities brought down on these children? One might consider the possibility that they are seen as future Democrat voters. Not a joke, as Joe Biden often adds to when he's lying. 

Remember, it was the Democrats who stopped the construction of the border wall once Biden was in office and then enforcement measures were also loosened to a point where child trafficking went virtually unchecked. Thousands of children were separated from their families and put in the hands of cartel smugglers. 

Some children were abandoned at the border once they crossed. Although some were later found, many were never located which led to fears they had been exploited by criminal gangs.

Trump has taken a firm, no nonsense position on border security with a focus on human trafficking. His team is using advanced technologies to track illegal aliens entering the country and improving the partnership with local law enforcement agencies and NGOs, undoing the resistance between agencies the Biden administration created.

Finally, the Trump administration is once again taking proactive measures to find and rescue kids who have been trafficked.

The adults are back in town.

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Pres. Trump sending Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs

Bahdahbah-bahdahbing! President Trump is sending Israel thousands of bombs, big bombs, two-thousand pound bombs, as many as 1,800 MK-84 bombs will be shipped to the Jewish State in spite of the so-called ceasefire with the terror group Hamas.

This move reverses a Biden administration hold on the explosive supply, Israeli officials told Axios.

The Israeli government was reportedly informed by the Pentagon about the bomb release on Friday, the day before Hamas let four hostages go as part of the ceasefire deal. Trump is reportedly planning to send 1,800 MK-84 bombs to Israel in the near future.

These huge bombs have been kept in storage since May when Biden chose to delay their shipment due to worries about the potential for major civilian casualties if they were used in Gaza's crowded areas.

The U.S. had already given Israel over 10,000 of these bombs during the conflict. These bombs are called “bunker busters” because they can penetrate deep into the ground before exploding.

This decision to pause the shipment put a lot of strain on the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

The news came shortly after Mike Herzog, who was stepping down as Israel's ambassador to the U.S., mentioned that he anticipated Trump would lift the ban early in his term. He said, “We believe that Trump is going to release, at the beginning of his term, the munitions that haven't been released until now by the Biden administration.”

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Hamas refuses to provide hostage list again, breaching ceasefire once more

Hamassholes before releasing four Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Gaza City.
 Jan. 25, 2025. Photo: Aboos Abusalama/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images.

On Saturday, Hamas failed to provide Israel with a list detailing the status of the remaining 26 hostages scheduled to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire, marking a second breach of the agreement within 24 hours, according to local media reports on Sunday. This is typical of the terror group as they lie and violate agreements like it was a joke.

According to the terms of the deal, Hamas was supposed to inform Jerusalem by Saturday which of the remaining hostages, all categorized as humanitarian cases—female, children, elderly, and sick—were still alive. Having failed to do so, it is feared that many hostages have since been killed after being kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Hamassholes also breached the agreement by releasing four female Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Saturday while keeping Israeli civilian Arbel Yehud in captivity. Under the terms of the deal, Hamas was obligated to release civilian women and children hostages before freeing the female troops. This is their way of pulling on the heartstrings of Israelis and simply being anal sphincters.

Despite these breaches, Israel has stuck to the stupidly agreed-to-ratio for releasing Arab prisoners from its jails. The initial terms stated that more terrorists would be freed in exchange for soldiers than for civilians.

However, in response to Hamas's actions, Jerusalem has halted the northward movement of Arab noncombatants.

“As per the agreement, Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the north of the Strip until the release of the civilian Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today, is arranged,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated on Saturday, shortly after IDF hostages Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy returned to Israel.

Earlier this week, the IDF  announced that Arabs would be allowed to return northwards if Hamas adhered to the ceasefire terms.

Hamas has claimed that Yehud is alive and well and would be freed with the next group of captives on Feb. 1, trying to blame the failure to release her on the Iranian-backed Palestinian [sic] Islamic Jihad and a related Salafist group reportedly holding her.

Overnight, Hamas encouraged thousands of Arabs to move back to the northern Strip to pressure Israel, leading to IDF soldiers firing warning shots to control the crowd, as reported by local media.

The military emphasized in a Saturday night statement that troops were only to fire warning shots, urging Arabs to “obey IDF instructions and not approach the forces deployed in the area.”

Israeli estimates suggest there are still 90 hostages in Hamas captivity in Gaza, including 87 taken during the Oct. 7 attacks.

Of the 251 hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, 164 have been returned or rescued, and Hamas is believed to hold 35 bodies, with 34 of them from the Oct. 7 incident, and that of Lt. Hadar Goldin, captured by the terror group in 2014.

Hamas breached the terms of the hostage release deal within 24 hours of its Jan. 19 implementation by failing to provide Israel with the names of the three female captives that were scheduled for release the next day.

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Abbasshole congratulates Hamasshole who killed Jews, including 9-month old

Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier and avowed anti-Semite, made a congratulatory phone call Saturday to one of the terrorist scumbags freed by Israel as part of the garbage ceasefire deal with Hamas.

According to Israel's Kan News, which showed footage of the call, Abbas congratulated Yasser Abu Bakr after his release from prison. Abu Bakr was sentenced to 115 years in 2004 for his part in attacks that killed Israeli civilians, including a baby, and injured many others.

In the recording, Abbas can be heard saying, "Your imprisonment was for the sake of the Palestinian nation," indicating he thought the sentence was too harsh, according to a translation by Israel's Walla news site.

Abbas's comments led to criticism from Israeli officials, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said, "His phone call tonight to a murderer of Jews is a wake-up call to those who still delude themselves about the P.A. being an alternative to Hamas in Gaza after the war. It won’t happen. Not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria. Mahmoud Abbas was and remains an enemy, a terror supporter, a promoter of terror, and the authority he heads was and remains a terrorist organization, and is not a 'partner.'"

On Saturday, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners as part of the second wave of a ceasefire deal. In return, four female Israeli soldiers, who were kidnapped during Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, were freed.

Many of these released prisoners had been convicted of murder or attempted murder, with some serving life sentences. Of those released, 109 went back to Judea and Samaria, 21 to Gaza, and about 70 were sent to Egypt. These prisoners in Egypt are expected to move to other countries as per the agreement that started on January 19.

In Cairo, the freed prisoners were met by representatives from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, backed by Iran. Some of them then traveled to Qatar, according to Sunday's reports.

On Sunday afternoon, the IDF reported an air strike in the Balata area of Nablus aimed at "dispersing a gathering of armed men." Kan News reported that the Israeli Air Force used an Elbit Hermes 450 drone to fire a warning shot at a terrorist parade during a funeral, choosing not to attack directly because of the presence of women and children.

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IDF postpones Lebanon withdrawal: it ain't over yet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the IDF will stay in Lebanon beyond the agreed upon 60-day deadline set by the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.

Netanyahu’s office explained that the military withdrawal from southern Lebanon would only happen if "the Lebanese Army deploys in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforces the agreement." According to the ceasefire, it's the Lebanese Army's job to get rid of all Hezbollah facilities in southern Lebanon and stop the terrorist group from getting more weapons.

"Since the ceasefire agreement hasn't been fully carried out by the Lebanese government yet, the process of pulling our troops out will go on, but we'll do it in close cooperation with the United States," the prime minister's office stated. "Israel will not put its people or communities at risk and will push for the complete fulfillment of our war goals in Lebanon—making sure our residents can return home safely to the north."

Israel's snail-like withdrawal from Lebanon highlights a major challenge in the U.S.-led peace efforts. In both Lebanon and Gaza, Israel has agreed to cease hostilities and pull back on the condition that Iran-supported terrorist groups are cleared from its borders— Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south. However, it seems that only the Israeli military has both the determination and the power to enforce this requirement.

"When I sit down practically every day with the heads of the [Israel Defense Forces] and the security agencies and the prime minister and the defense minister, the picture is that we still have to be there, and we still have to hold these zones," Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of Israel’s parliamentary defense committee and a member of the ruling Likud party, told the Washington Free Beacon, referring to Gaza and southern Lebanon as well as a buffer zone that Israel seized in southern Syria after Islamist rebels overthrew the Assad regime last month. "I don’t think this is a political discussion in any of these zones. I think this is a security issue. Long-term plans can be discussed in the future, but right now, we have to make sure that the borders are safe."

"We learned the hard way on Oct. 7, 2023, what happens if the border is not safe," Edelstein added, referring to the Hamas-led surprise attack on southern Israel that started the multifront war. "We saw once again that just building a fence or even having some sensors or whatever doesn’t necessarily help. So the protection should be combined protection of everything we have, including if necessary holding the strategic points on both sides of the border."

After weeks of rumors about when Israel would leave Lebanon, Hebrew media reported on Thursday that Israeli leaders had asked the Trump administration for another 30 days. Outgoing Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog, told Army Radio that the administration didn't want to extend the deadline, but he added, "I believe we will reach an understanding."

By Friday afternoon, an Israeli official, who didn't want to be named, told the Free Beacon that discussions with the Trump administration on this issue were "ongoing."

"Everything has been discussed," the official said, not confirming if the delay had been approved.

A few hours later, the White House supported "a short, temporary ceasefire extension" in Lebanon.

"All parties share the goal of ensuring Hezbollah does not have the ability to threaten the Lebanese people or their neighbors. To achieve these goals, a short, temporary ceasefire extension is urgently needed," said Brian Hughes, a White House National Security Council spokesman. "We are pleased that the IDF has started the withdrawal from the central regions, and we continue to work closely with our regional partners to finalize the extension."

Neither the Lebanese government nor Hezbollah have responded yet. However, Hezbollah stated on Thursday that any delay in Israel’s withdrawal would be unacceptable, warning that it would see such a "breach" as "a blatant violation of the agreement, an attack on Lebanese sovereignty and the beginning of a new chapter of occupation."

Israel moved into southern Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of daily rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which led to the evacuation of many Israelis living near the northern border. Israeli forces discovered and destroyed terrorist setups near the border, including some designed for attacks similar to those on October 7.

After Trump's election in November, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which has been unstable with Israel claiming Hezbollah has violated it hundreds of times. Andrea Tenenti, who speaks for UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, told the New York Times on Friday that Israel still held about 70 percent of the areas it had taken.

On Friday evening, the Israeli military stated it was "continuing to operate in accordance with the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon."

"The IDF remains deployed in southern Lebanon, continues to monitor Hezbollah’s attempts to return to southern Lebanon, and will operate against any threat posed to IDF troops and the State of Israel," the military said, mentioning recent airstrikes and ground operations aimed at "removing threats" like Hezbollah's weapon stores and lookout points.

Edelstein stated that Israel was sticking to the ceasefire agreement and was hopeful that the Lebanese Army would do its part to enforce the deal. However, he was skeptical, saying, "the chances are not very high at this stage that the Lebanese Army will be effective."

Amir Avivi, who used to be a high-ranking Israeli military official, told the Free Beacon that in his Tuesday meeting with Defense Minister Israel Katz, Katz was already set on keeping soldiers in southern Lebanon, as well as in Gaza and Syria.

"As long as the Lebanese Army does not deploy in southern Lebanon, Israel is going to stay. There might be a withdrawal from specific points. But overall, Israel’s interest is to maintain a buffer zone of two to three kilometers on the Lebanese side of the border," Avivi explained. "The plan is basically to stay in all the buffer zones. There is an understanding that we need to be in Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria for at least the rest of this year, because this is the best way to defend the Israeli border."

Unlike Israel's occupation of Lebanon from 1982 to 2000, which many saw as a failure, Avivi noted that the new buffer zones would be narrow military-only areas, saying, "no civilians, no houses, nothing."

A Katz spokesman and a Defense Ministry spokeswoman chose not to comment.

Edelstein, Avivi, and other Israeli military officials, both current and former, told the Free Beacon that Israel might have to pull out of Gaza completely or partially under a hostage-ceasefire agreement with Hamas that started on Saturday. They agreed that during any withdrawal, Israel could keep a buffer zone from its side of Gaza’s border. But in the end, they believed the military would need to re-enter Gaza strongly to oust Hamas from control.

"I would say the chances are high that in the near future there will be no alternative to Israel enforcing security and preventing Hamas from reorganizing," Edelstein said. "It doesn’t mean that we are not searching for some other force to rule Gaza, but there are not too many volunteers. I guess Gaza doesn’t have a very good reputation in the Arab world."

Eran Ortal, who retired last year as head of the Israeli military’s Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies, told the Free Beacon that a long-term occupation of Gaza was "absurdly opposite to Israel’s national security strategy." Yet, he argued, it was necessary.

"In our neighborhood, no one who does Oct. 7 should remain a living actor," Ortal said. "It’s just too dangerous. We’re going to be facing copycat attempts for decades to come, and if we want to limit that phenomenon, Hamas should be annihilated from the earth."

On Friday, Israel agreed to Hamas’s proposal to release four young women hostages, even though the list went against Hamas's promise to first free all living female civilians, according to Israel's Channel 12 news. Hamas cited technical issues for the breach. The four women to be released are soldiers captured when Hamas attacked an Israeli surveillance base on October 7.

Hamas has committed to releasing 33 female hostages over the first 42 days of the ceasefire, in exchange for up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of killing Israelis. In the initial exchange on Sunday, Hamas freed three female civilians, leaving 91 hostages in captivity, with 57 thought to be alive, and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners. A second phase of the ceasefire could involve freeing all remaining hostages and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

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Pro-Hamasshole students ready to be deported

AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah

Before the door to the Oval Office fully closed on Monday, President Donald Trump was signing executive orders.

 One of them is focused on "protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other national security and public safety threats."

"It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes," the order declares.

This statement spells trouble for visa holders who support terrorism, particularly those on college campuses who advocate for groups like Hamas.

"The Secretary of Homeland Security shall take immediate steps to exclude or remove that alien unless she determines that doing so would inhibit a significant pending investigation or prosecution of the alien for a serious criminal offense or would be contrary to the national security interests of the United States," the order further stipulates.

President Trump, alongside the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, are evidently focusing on visa reform, especially targeting nations perceived as adversarial to American values, as explicitly outlined in the order.

"To protect Americans, the United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those aliens approved for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans or our national interests. More importantly, the United States must identify them before their admission or entry into the United States. And the United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security," the order explains.

The pro-Israel group Betar has already compiled a list of such individuals. 

From the New York Post:

The group, Betar, has about 30 names of students from nations such as Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Canada, and the United Kingdom currently enrolled in some of the nation’s top universities, including Columbia, UPenn, Michigan, Syracuse, UCLA, The New School for Social Research, Carnegie Mellon, and George Washington University.

"We have started compiling lists of Jew-hating foreign nationals on visas who support Hamas," said Ross Glick, director of the US chapter of Betar.

So instead of a US President supplying Iran and their proxies with money, we finally have a President who is being proactive and is removing the problem from our country.

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