Author: potus
President Trump on Thursday defended his proposal for the United States to take charge of postwar Gaza and resettle its Palestinian residents, but stressed that he would not deploy U.S. troops to the enclave, as Israel’s defense minister announced that he had ordered the military to draft a plan to allow people to voluntarily leave.The developments add to a swirl of confusion over the proposal by Mr. Trump to “take over” the Gaza Strip and for the roughly two million Palestinians living there to move elsewhere. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international…
Attorneys for the Justice Department have agreed to temporarily restrict staffers associated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing information in the Treasury Department’s payment system.The agreement comes after a group of union members and retirees sued the Treasury Department alleging that providing DOGE access to the federal government’s massive payment and collections system — and the personal data housed in it — violated federal privacy laws.The Trump administration filed a motion Wednesday night seeking to enter a proposed order that detailed the agreed-upon terms.”The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of…
President Trump’s funding freeze has thrown into confusion the future of a Syrian desert camp holding thousands of Islamic State members and their families, the camp’s director and people familiar with it said, describing it as a potential security threat in the region.The camp, Al Hol, which houses some 39,000 people, has been whipsawed by a halt to U.S.-funded programs then short reprieves, and is still struggling to understand its status. Even as some programs critical to securing the camp received temporary extensions, another organization essential to managing the camp said it might have to halt its work there as…
Trump also said that “no soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”Trump’s Truth Social post comes after contradictory comments Tuesday on whether he foresaw Palestinians being able to live in a future Gaza that he described as the “riviera of the Middle East.” He initially suggested that Palestinians could be permanently removed, before adding they would be able to live there, alongside others, after Gaza was rebuilt.Trump’s proposal to seize control of Gaza and potentially oust the roughly 2.2 million Palestinians who live there has sparked anger, fear and disbelief across the Middle East…
As Japan’s prime minister prepares for his first meeting with President Trump, he is hoping to make a personal connection with the leader of the superpower on which his country depends both economically and militarily. But in the unpredictable Trump White House, even a simple meet-and-greet might be a risky gamble.The summit between Mr. Trump and Japan’s prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, which is scheduled for Friday, is the result of months of behind-the-scenes efforts by a wide range of Japanese: not just diplomats and lawmakers, but also one of the country’s richest investors and the widow of an assassinated former…
President Trump’s statements on Tuesday about an American takeover of the Gaza Strip and displacing millions of Palestinians were immediately dismissed by many as reckless and half-baked pronouncements, a provocative threat that Mr. Trump was unlikely to enforce.At the same time, his comments are the latest example of how government officials on the right in both the United States and Israel now speak publicly about a shared goal: the takeover of Palestinian land.The question of whether the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories captured and occupied by Israel in 1967 — might become the foundation of a future…
The mood at today’s rally at the Capitol in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development was one of shock, fear and fury at lawmakers for not doing more to push back against the dismantling of USAID.Mary Kate Adgie, a State Department contractor who said she was laid off last week as a result of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s stop-work order, told NBC News she was working on projects under the Global Fragility Act — a law co-sponsored by then-Sen. Rubio and signed by Trump during his first administration that “aims to revitalize how the United States invests…
DENVER — Heavily armed federal agents raided apartment buildings across metro Denver early Wednesday in a search for Venezuelan gang members and other migrants under the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort targeting major cities.At least two dozen officers carrying high-powered weapons stormed several complexes before sunrise. In some cases, they were backed by large, military-style vehicles.The Department of Homeland Security said on social media that it was targeting 100 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua for arrest and detention. It did not say how many people were taken into custody.The operation included officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement;…
First-of-their-kind lawsuits, near-daily staff memos from the little-known acting FBI director and abject fear among agents that they could lose their jobs have distracted and destabilized the FBI workforce, a half-dozen current and former federal law enforcement officials with experience in the bureau told NBC News. The tensions at the country’s most powerful federal law enforcement agency follow a Trump administration request for the names of thousands of agents assigned to work on Capitol riot-related investigations. Assurances from the administration that it will review agents’ conduct and not necessarily fire them have not quelled fears of mass firings.If the new administration…
Dozens of Head Start programs, which provide child care and preschool education to low-income children, have been unable to access previously approved federal funding, putting some programs at risk of having to close their doors in the coming days, according to a survey by the National Head Start Association. The programs say they haven’t been able to draw down the funds to pay for expenses, like payroll and utilities, since a federal funding freeze was announced in the second week of the Trump administration. The freeze started last week with an Office of Management and Budget memo, which was then quickly…