Riyadh says its ‘firm and unwavering’ stance has been relayed to administration; PA envoy rejects Trump’s call for permanent relocation of Gazans: ‘Our homeland is our homeland’
Gaza-ruling Hamas also condemned Trump’s calls for Gazans to leave as “expulsion from their land.”
“We consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass,” senior Hamas member Sami Abu Zuhri said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/05/politics/trump-gaza-takeover-analysis/index.html
To see an American president endorse what would be the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from their home, in an exodus that would subvert decades of US policy, international law and basic humanity, was breathtaking.
Trump followed up with the most imperialist reflex yet of a second term in which he’s already threatened to annex the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada. He envisaged a real estate deal whereby he’d assume responsibility for Gaza and mastermind a job-creating urban regeneration project. He called it an American “ownership position.” A better phrase would be colonialism for the 21st century.
Trump’s plan was greeted with huge skepticism by Republican senators. And Democratic Sen. Chris Coons put his face in his hand and rubbed his temples. “I’m speechless. That’s insane,” the man from Delaware said.
But while his proposal, which would perhaps be the world’s largest ever real estate development deal, is unlikely to ever happen, it’s quintessential Trump.
“You say things others refuse to say,” Netanyahu said. “And after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and they say, ‘You know, he’s right.’”
The first sentence is undoubtably true. The second one, not so much.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5127021-trump-us-takeover-gaza/
President Trump on Tuesday floated the idea of the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip, saying America should be responsible for clearing the territory of rubble and unexploded bombs and proposing an “economic development.”
“I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place… I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East… this could be so magnificent.”
Asked about the possibility of sending U.S. troops to Gaza, Trump said the U.S. will “do what is necessary” as he laid out plans for the U.S. to take the area over, and suggested he would visit the territory.
“As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that,” Trump said.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-ally-pam-bondi-confirmed-us-attorney-general-2026270
Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and corporate lobbyist, was confirmed as the U.S. Attorney General, placing a staunch ally of President Donald Trump at the helm of the Justice Department (DOJ).
After the 54-46 vote, including a "yes" vote from Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Bondi's appointment comes amidst a DOJ already troubled by the dismissals of career employees perceived as disloyal to Trump. Bondi will be responsible for overseeing the FBI, which is currently experiencing turmoil due to scrutiny of agents involved in Trump investigations.
Bondi, a longstanding figure in Trump's orbit, has been a vocal defender of the president on various news programs. In a 2023 Fox News appearance, she suggested bad Justice Department prosecutors would face investigation under the Trump administration.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-impeachment-petition-signatures-free-speech-2023990
The nonprofit Free Speech for People launched the petition on the day Trump returned to the White House.
It calls on Congress to launch an impeachment investigation into alleged violations of the Emoluments Clauses that prohibit a president from profiting from the United States, individual states, or foreign governments, his "unlawful" and "corrupt" conduct during his campaign and his pardoning of those who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The campaign on Thursday added what it said were new grounds for an impeachment inquiry based on other actions Trump has taken since returning to office, including his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for certain children born in the U.S. It also alleges that he unlawfully fired inspector generals and members of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board and is abusing his power to "seek retribution against perceived enemies."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/yes-its-a-coup-and-yes-its-targeting-you/
The efforts by the Trump team to supplant the role and authorities assigned to Congress, to illegally shutdown whole federal agencies, to oust government employees en masse and to champion culture war witch hunts are little different from attempts to use violence to stop the transition of power in 2021.
The reason the law protects civil servants from arbitrary, partisan termination is because our elected representatives determined it was in our interests to immunize them from the ebbs and flows, passions and stupidities of American politics. When they are systematically fired or forced out of office—as is happening this week across the government—our voice as an electorate is being ignored.
So, too are our basic interests as people. Was it in our interest for the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to be forced out of office, just days before the horrific crash that sent a passenger jet and a military helicopter plunging into the D.C.‘s Potomac River? Is it in our interests for Trump to fire FBI officials simply because they were enforcing laws our representatives put in place to protect us? Simply because they were doing their duty?
Republicans typically push to give the State Department — which provides overall foreign policy guidance to USAID — more control of its policy and funds. Democrats typically promote USAID autonomy and authority.
Funding for United Nations agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights and refugee agencies, have been traditional targets for Republican administrations to cut. The first Trump administration moved to reduce foreign aid spending, suspending payments to various U.N. agencies, including the U.N. Population Fund and funding to the Palestinian Authority.
In Trump’s first term, the U.S. pulled out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and its financial obligations to that body. The U.S. is also barred from funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, under a bill signed by then-President Joe Biden last March.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/trump-condoms-gaza
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Donald Trump boasted that his administration had “stopped $50m being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas”, doubling down on a claim first made by his press secretary which appears to be contradicted by the facts.
As the Guardian reported on Tuesday, a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.
The claim was first made by White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, as she tried to justify Trump’s sweeping order to freeze federal funding by citing what she called important new research from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (or Doge), a special group that Trump has created, and the office of management and budget (OMB).
https://apnews.com/article/gaza-condoms-fact-check-trump-50-million-26884cac6c7097d7316ca50ca4145a82
CLAIM: The Trump administration stopped $50 million from being sent to the Gaza Strip to buy condoms for Hamas.
THE FACTS: Trump and his spokesperson appeared to be referring to a grant or grants that USAID awarded to a group called the International Medical Corps worth $102.2 million to provide medical and trauma services in Gaza. The State Department earlier Wednesday described this as an example of “egregious funding” not aligned with American interests or the president’s policies.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s two-day Senate confirmation hearing should remove all doubt: He’s absolutely unfit to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
His testimony did nothing to change anyone’s minds about that.
Take his refusal to deny a link between vaccines and autism — despite mountains of scientific evidence refuting any such connections.
The President pauses after minor concessions from Canada and Mexico.
