This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
By Matt Bailey, WorldNetDaily Washington correspondent
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, a "shadow government" at a Monday news conference on Capitol Hill.
Schumer and others from the Democratic caucus had gathered the media to discuss the Elon Musk-helmed agency gaining access to the Treasury Department's payment system.
The five gathered Democrats – Sens. Schumer, Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Patty Murray, and Brian Schatz – argued DOGE had no authority to access the payment system. They claimed Musk had "illegally" accessed the system.
At one point, Sen. Warren claimed that DOGE had "raided" the Treasury to gain access to the system. As of this reporting, that is not accurate, and it appears Treasury Secretary Scott Bissent has cooperated with DOGE's efforts to access the Treasury.
The Democrats also argued President Donald Trump has no authority to interfere with congressionally approved funding.
Unfortunately for the senators, this is incorrect. In fact, the DOGE office is a reworking of an Obama-era agency known as the United States Digital Service. Just as with DOGE, the Digital Service was created unilaterally by the president.
What was on display today was a reaction to Trump doing exactly what he said he would do: cut the government down to size and get it to work for the American people. Elon Musk claims to have already found what he's calling "fraudulent" payments that Treasury officials were directed to hand out, no questions asked.
Donald Trump has created an agency whose sole job it is to look under the hood of government institutions. This has establishment bureaucrats on both sides of the aisle terrified, and for good reason.
The questions about DOGE stalling payments already authorized by congress is at this point a hypothetical. But it is a net positive that the executive branch, as part of the checks and balances that make our government work, now has the ability to audit the fund that congress is approving.
President Donald Trump has matched his highest-ever approval ratings in one of the bluest states in the nation--New York--and has a higher approval rating than Governor Kathy Hochul (D) in the same poll.
The Siena College survey was released on Monday and showed Trump with a 41% approval rating, while Hochul's was 39%.
Trump's approval hasn't been so high since the month before he took office in 2016.
A big part of the upward swing for Trump is his crackdown on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes--79% of poll respondents approved of deporting criminal illegal immigrants.
A majority of 54% believe that Trump will do an "excellent" or "good" job securing the U.S. border.
“President Trump has not been popular in his former home state for more than a decade. And while that is still true, Trump now has his best favorability rating, 41-56%, since the month before he took office the first time, December 2016, when his favorability rating was 41-53%,” Sienna pollster Steven Greenberg said of the results.
Predictably, Republicans view Trump favorably 83% to 13%, while Democrats view him unfavorably 81% to 17%. With independents, Trump is slightly up 48% to 46%.
Trump is already making good on his promises to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes and has conducted ICE raids in New York City and other major cities.
Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, an alleged ringleader of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, was arrested in the Bronx last week.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made his first visit to the southern border on Monday, declaring a "new era of determination" under Trump.
"Because of President Donald Trump, this is a new era at the southern border, a new era of determination, a new era of cooperation. And at the Defense Department, we are proud to be a part of it," he told reporters after touring the border.
Trump has used threats of tariffs to get countries like Mexico, Canada, and Columbia to cooperate with his border crackdown.
Mexico and Canada have both said they will station thousands of troops at the border to stop the flow of fentanyl and human trafficking there.
The U.S. military is also deploying more troops there. "We are going to get control of this border," Hegseth promised.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
This is the second in a series of articles about the changing global order that began with "Let's talk Turkey about Islam."
"The U.K. boasts more civil servants per capita than China, more DEI employees per capita than anywhere else in the world, the highest tax burden since 1948, a national debt which equals 100 percent of GDP, record annual net migration of net-tax-recipients, and a capital city in which at least 1 in 12 is an illegal immigrant," writes Connor Tomlinson.
I suggest that if this trend does not rapidly reverse course to fully align with the U.S. MAGA agenda, we should switch sides in the centuries-long Britain vs. Russia clash of empires.
A year ago this month, I read a long but utterly fascinating article by Richard Poe, "How the British Invented Communism (And Blamed It on the Jews): The Untold Story of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, MI6, and the Russian Revolution." And the next day I read an excellent piece by Alex Krainer, titled "France under attack," almost like an addendum to the Poe piece on the (still churning) chaos in France, also explaining behind-the-scenes geopolitics that point blame at the "Anglo-American Imperial Establishment."These articles, which remain timely and worth reading, offer a somewhat pro-Russian but still objective and scholarly perspective of the centuries-long rivalry of the British and Russian empires that you will never find among Western sources.
I offered constructive criticism to Mr. Poe in a private (unacknowledged) email to him, pointing out that the British government he blames for scapegoating the Jews was itself in part a product of an Anglo-Jewish partnership going even back to before the Glorious Revolution, manifesting most clearly in the Christian doctrine/political philosophy of British Israelism. BI peaked during the reign of Queen Victoria (whose genealogical chart claimed succession from the Judean kings) when Benjamin Disraeli was prime Minister. Disraeli's Jewish father had been convinced by top BI advocate and historian Sharon Turner to baptize his son as a Christian (becoming the child's godfather). BI persisted among select elites until the liberation of the Holy Land from the Ottoman Turks in 1917 and the formal restoration of the Jews there per the Balfour Declaration.
Indeed, I suggested to Poe that the hostility (he documents) Winston Churchill displayed toward "International Jewry" may have been in part a consequence of the breakdown of the "British Israelism" partnership after almost 500 years of Messianic Christian/Jewish shared dreams of a two-house reunification in a restored Israel, which I have summarized in three articles here. When that shared vision of two-house "Zionism" was supplanted in the unfolding Marxist era by exclusively "one-house" Jewish nationalism (formalized as a political movement in 1897), it presumably fostered bitterness and resentment among Christians. It must have seemed to many (not to me) that British Israelism had never been anything more than a cynical scam to manipulate the British monarchy and Church of England. It didn't help that once the nationalist Jews' goal of legal/physical restoration to the Holy Land was achieved, the entire 5-century-long BI campaign was dropped and memory-holed so thoroughly that the average Christian today knows literally nothing about it.
I cite those articles in support of the premise that Anglo-Zionism was and is the driving force of the British Empire – a force that was once benign but is now malignant due to infection by Marxism. Two weeks ago I read another phenomenal article by Krainer that goes to the question of how this force has steered America.
"When the United States declared independence from the British Empire, the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were not just a bunch of belligerent rebels with nothing to lose. In many ways, they were similar to the people flanking Donald Trump today," writes Krainer. "They were all educated men of means and privileged members of society.
"Of the 56 signatories, 24 were lawyers and jurists; 11 were wealthy merchants; nine were farmers and large plantation owners. In signing the Declaration of Independence they provoked the wrath of the empire, knowing for sure that if they were captured their penalty would be death. Five of them were in fact captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons and another two had their sons captured and imprisoned.
"Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships in the revolutionary war. … The home and properties of Francis Lewis were destroyed and his wife was jailed. She died within a few months. … The properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton were vandalized and destroyed by British troops or their proxy terror squads. British Gen. Cornwallis took over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. It was destroyed during the battle of Yorktown, and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart had to flee his homestead. … When he returned home, his wife was dead and their 13 children all vanished. The grief and distress killed him within a few weeks. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
"When the imperial cabal decided to break up the United States, which precipitated the Civil War, they were confronted by President Abraham Lincoln [who evaded the Rothschild banking cartel's grossly usurious debt trap by issuing interest-free Greenbacks to fund Union war efforts]. In 1863, Russian Czar Alexander II came to Lincoln's aid by dispatching his Baltic fleet to New York and his Pacific fleet to San Francisco. The move blocked the Empire's intervention on the side of the Confederation, which was planned by the British with the support of France and the Vatican. The U.S.-Russian alliance ultimately prevailed, and the United States was preserved.
If all this is true, has continued apace till today, and the U.K. decides not to repent and return to biblical values in the near future, perhaps we should consider partnering instead with conservative Christian Russia and the current religiously and socially conservative Israeli government that is so deeply hated by the Synagogue of Satan in London and New York. In my next article, "A vision for a U.S./Russia/Israel global order," I will explore what this might look like.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump can win a significant victory no matter how the fight that erupted over his executive order over "birthright citizenship" ends up, according to a constitutional expert.
Jonathan Turley, the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University, has not only advised Congress on constitutional matters but has represented members in court cases.
He recently wrote about the dispute over "birthright citizenship" that has erupted since Trump took office and issued a list of orders cracking down on illegal aliens, illegal immigration and more.
He explained, "The Fourteenth Amendment starts and ends as a model of clarity, stating that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States' are 'citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.' However, sandwiched between those two phrases, Congress inserted the words 'and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.' Those six words have perplexed many since they were first drafted."
He said the Supreme Court has seemed "conflicted" in its rulings on the issue, some of which date back a century and a half.
In one case then, the justices said for newborns to be citizens in America they must be born here and their parents must not merely be "subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and not subject to any foreign power."
A ruling some 40 years ago from the court then said there's no "plausible distinction" between those who enter the nation illegally, or illegally.
Roughly half the nation opposes birthright citizenship, that is citizenship status granted to those born in the U.S. of illegal alien parents.
"The key is where those voters are coming from," he said. " The minority of voters supporting the right are overwhelmingly coming from the Democratic core that opposed Trump in the last election. In other words, it is an issue appealing to the very margin voters that will be needed in the midterm election. That makes this a perfect wedge issue either as a court fight or, if unsuccessful, a fight for a constitutional amendment," he explained.
The Trump administration, he said, has been pleased even by criticism from leftists who have lined up against him.
The Trump administration members, he said, "believe that they cannot lose this fight."
He said the question probably will end up at the Supreme Court, and there are "skeptical" conservatives like John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett who make predicting an end result problematic.
"So what makes this a win-win proposition for the Trump administration? The politics are stronger than the precedent. Even if the administration loses before the Supreme Court, it will force Democrats again to fight against a tougher stance on immigration issues. Democrats maintained that position in the last election despite polling showing that 83 percent of Americans support deportations of immigrants with violent criminal records and almost half support mass deportation of all undocumented persons," he noted.
Trump can win either way, he said.
"It will either secure a new interpretation from the high court or it could spur a campaign for a constitutional amendment. All of this could unfold around the time of the midterm elections, when incumbents of the president's party are generally disfavored. This is a wedge issue that many in the Republican Party might welcome."
WND has reported that Trump announced the "birthright citizenship" agenda used for years in America, granting citizenship to any baby born on American soil, would no longer include the offspring of illegal aliens.
Opponents went to court immediately and members of Congress already have joined the battle, with a plan to resolve the fight in Trump's favor.
Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, has announced the pending Birthright Citizenship Act of 2025.
He said it would "restore the 14th Amendment to its original purpose and end the misuse of birthright citizenship."
It would provide for automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. if at least one parent is a citizen or national of the U.S., a lawful permanent resident whose residence is in the U.S., or a lawful immigrant performing active service in the armed forces.
"The introduction of this bill aligns with President Donald Trump's commitment to make birthright citizenship reform a top priority. Granting automatic citizenship to children of illegal immigrants is based on a flawed interpretation of the 14thAmendment, which was originally intended to ensure recently freed slaves gained full rights as Americans. It was never intended to confer citizenship to children of individuals who enter or remain in the United States illegally," he said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The U.S. Supreme Court is lining up to decide whether abortion profiteers can demand that they be allowed to participate in tax-funded programs like Medicaid – even after state officials determine they are not qualified.
It is the ADF that said it has submitted its opening brief to the high court in the Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic case in which lower courts said that officials in South Carolina are not allowed to direct Medicaid funding, that money intended to help low-income individuals get needed medical help – away from abortion industry representatives like Planned Parenthood.
"Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that make a profit off abortion," said John Bursch, a lawyer for ADF.
"State officials should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid. Congress did not create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions. Nor did Congress intend for federal courts to second guess states' decisions about which providers are qualified to receive Medicaid funding."
The state of South Carolina had determined that Planned Parenthood's abortion business components were not qualified to get tax money under the state's Medicaid, but a federal district court and then the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.
ADF said the case could decide whether states like South Carolina are allowed to direct the aid program's money.
"The Medicaid Act is not a civil-rights statute. It is a program that anticipates cooperative federalism—'federal and state actors working together … to carry out the statute's aims.' Unsurprisingly, the Act focuses on that relationship between the states and the federal government—not the creation of individual healthcare rights," the brief informs the justices.
"To hold otherwise would encroach upon the executive and legislative branches' prerogatives while increasing the cost to the states of providing medical care to their neediest citizens."
Medicaid was created in 1965 as a federal-state cooperative giving medical assistance to the needy. It provides that patients can obtain help from any "qualified" provider.
This fight developed when patient Julie Edwards, getting Medicaid benefits, obtained treatment at Planned Parenthood and wanted to continue going there.
However, the governor said through an executive order that the state Health Department could no longer consider Planned Parenthood "qualified."
Planned Parenthood sued to keep getting paid under Medicaid.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a series of steps Monday afternoon to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., thus receiving a 30-day pause in tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
"I just had a good call with President Trump," Trudeau said on X.
"Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan – reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.
"In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a Fentanyl Czar, we will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering. I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl and we will be backing it with $200 million.
"Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together."
Trump also commented on the deal, indicating: "Canada has agreed to ensure we have a secure Northern Border, and to finally end the deadly scourge of drugs like Fentanyl that have been pouring into our Country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, while destroying their families and communities all across our Country."
"As President, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of ALL Americans, and I am doing just that. I am very pleased with this initial outcome, and the Tariffs announced on Saturday will be paused for a 30 day period to see whether or not a final Economic deal with Canada can be structured. FAIRNESS FOR ALL!"
Earlier Monday, Trump announced Mexico has agreed to send thousands of its troops to help secure its border with America in exchange for a temporary pause in tariffs on its products.
"I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States.
"These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country.
"We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico.
"I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a 'deal' between our two Countries."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Just one of the big moves President Donald Trump, and his administration, took on Monday was the shutdown of USAID, the government agency that for years has been handing out billions of American taxpayer dollars to other nations.
The closure happened when the administration ordered the agency's headquarters closed down and told employees not to report.
Its exact future isn't known at this point, but later in the day Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly was named acting administrator.
While bureaucrats fumed and leftists claimed the action would cause incalculable injury, Trump's press office, with no fanfare, released a stunning list of the offensive projects that USAID had its hands, and American tax dollars, in.
Such as the "millions" that went to EcoHealth Alliance, the organization involved in research at the Wuhan, China, lab from which the China virus, COVID-19, likely emerged to kill millions around the globe.
Then there were payments for "hundreds of thousands" of meals … for al-Qaida-affiliated fighters in Syria.
And the projects seemed beneficial – irrigation canals, farming equipment and fertilizers – but it was in support of an "unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan," which benefited the Taliban.
Then there were "personalized" contraceptives for around the globe.
"For decades, the United States Agency for International Development has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous =– and, in many cases, malicious – pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight," the White House said.
Other examples of "waste and fraud":
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or Bibi, at the White House on Feb. 4, the first foreign leader to meet in person with Trump at the White House since he was inaugurated.
The Trump-Bibi meeting is occurring right after the first American hostage was released this weekend by the Hamas terrorist group.
They were freed as part of the current Israel-Hamas deal, which mandates the release of 33 so-called "humanitarian hostages" during its first 42-day ceasefire phase.
The great news is that more of the 251 Israelis and foreigners are being released, those who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, when roughly 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists stormed into Israel, slaughtering 1,200-plus innocent civilians – including babies, kids, teens and elderly.
The tragic news is that, first, as Hamas' innocent hostages are gradually released, Israel is going to release some 1,904 Palestinian prisoners, including more than 100 serving life sentences for deadly terror attacks!
Further tragedy is found in the fact that Hamas finally got its way: The brutal barbarians abducted 251 innocent civilians not only to protect their own hides (as they cowardly live like rats in holes under Gaza) but ultimately as bargaining chips to get their terrorist friends and minions freed from Israeli captivity. That is why with each of the hostage releases, Hamas murderers have paraded them through streets and across pro-Hamas theatrical stages (with signs like, "Nazi Zionism will not win") for their own propaganda purposes. Repulsive!
While I'm ecstatic for the family and friends of the released hostages, I grieve as the terrorists around the world now realize that even Israel and America can be forced to the terrorist bargaining tables when you kidnap their people.
Do we not think the Hamas' hostage-for-prisoners swaps will spur on more terrorist abductions of innocent civilians in the future in Israel and elsewhere around the world?
Obviously, chief among the Trump-Bibi meeting at the White House this week is discussing and answering questions: Where do Israel and America go from here? How do they continue to destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis (and the other Iranian proxies in the region) and yet prevent another Oct. 7th from ever happening again? How do Israel and America bring about a lasting Middle East peace?
I'll never forget when President Trump was speaking onboard Air Force One during his first term.
He compared one of the world's greatest territorial disputes – Israel vs. Palestine – to a business deal. He said, "I love doing deals." He added, "They say peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the toughest – the toughest of any deal."
He's right. There's no doubt, if Trump endeavors to "do a deal" in the Middle East during his second term, he will definitely encounter one of the (if not "the") greatest geographical strongholds in the entire world.
The truth is, Palestinian Arabs and other Islamic leaders have always been deadlocked with Israel over the Holy Land – since their very inception.
His enemies accuse Prime Minister Netanyahu and other conservatives of fighting against the peace process, but what peace process are they referring to? There's never been peace or a process that has worked well, despite political agreement after agreement that have been drafted.
For those who want to understand the history of the region, I encourage readers to go to YouTube and check out the five-minute video history summarizing the 4,000 years of upheaval in the Holy Land and its most sacred city, Jerusalem.
Tel Aviv became the temporary seat of government until the State of Israel moved it to Jerusalem in December 1949. Despite the shift in location, the U.S. Embassy was built in Tel Aviv in 1966. At the same time, believe it or not, the U.S. consulate has had a presence in West Jerusalem since 1844. Yes, you read that year correctly. (It is further interesting to note that other countries – like Britain and France – have their consulates in East Jerusalem.)
The new U.S. Embassy officially moved in 2018 under President Trump's direction on the site of the U.S. consulate. We are the first country to open an embassy in Jerusalem since before 1980, while 86 countries continue today to have their embassies in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. recognized Israel as a sovereign state in 1948, and it has promised to move its embassy there for more than 20 years. In 2018, President Trump fulfilled what three previous administrations promised to do but never did.
By doing so, the president fulfilled what Congress set out to do over two decades ago when a bilateral majority vote passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which formally recognized the sacred city as the country's capital and called for the U.S. Embassy to be moved there from Tel Aviv by 1999. Yes, 25 years ago was the deadline for Washington to move our embassy – just another broken promise from the swamp!
The Washington Post explained the 2-decade-old majority decision: "Support for the bill was overwhelming. Itpassed the Senate by a 93 to 5 vote, with four Republicans and one Democrat voting no. It passed the House 374 to 37, with 153 Democrats joining most of the new Republican majority that had swept into power in 1994."
What's crazy is this: Israel is the only country in the world not allowed to choose its own capital, at least in its enemies' eyes around the world. But one of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital.
As a response, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, declaring it a violation of international law. However, that hasn't ever stopped Israel from occupying and fighting for its capital, which is also why Netanyahu has always encouraged other countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem just as he did President Trump and our former presidents.
So, most Palestinian territory was granted back in 1948 by the United Nations, but Israel rejected those demarcation lines from the outset, ultimately winning back sovereignty over such areas as the West Bank, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War.
It wasn't until the disastrous 1993 Oslo Accords, which culminated with President Clinton pushing for the awkward handshake between Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, that things went from bad to worse.
The Oslo Accords granted limited autonomy to Palestine by further dividing territorial governance, but in the end the "peace treaty" did nothing but divide and escalate the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Many Israelis and others despised Rabin for yielding land they believed was divinely granted to them. Rabin was assassinated just two years later. And massive walls would eventually be erected and increased security measures taken everywhere to stop the steady stream of terrorism from areas governed by the Palestinian Authority or others like Hamas.
Critics often love to point out that the disputed area called the Golan Heights (also sometimes referred to as "The thumb of Israel," being only 44 miles north to south and 27 miles east to west, was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. But what they fail in explaining is that it was technically a "recapture," at least from Israel's point of view, because the land had been theirs in history past going back to Old Testament times.
As Briticanna.com documents from the earliest point of Hebrew history: "The area's name is from the biblical city of refuge Golan inBashan (Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 20:8)."
Wikipedia even elaborated: "According to the Bible, an Amorite Kingdom in Bashan was conquered by Israelites during the reign of King Og. Throughout the Old Testament period, the Golan was 'the focus of a power struggle between the Kings of Israel and the Aramaeans who were based near modern-day Damascus.' The Itureans, an Arab or Aramaic people, settled there in the second century B.C. and remained until the end of the Byzantine period. Organized Jewish settlement in the region came to an end in 636 when it was conquered by Arabs under Umar ibn al-Khattāb. In the 16th century, the Golan was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and was part of the Vilayet of Damascus until it was transferred to French control in 1918. When the mandate terminated in 1946, it became part of the newly independent Syrian Republic."
With the recent fall of the Assad regime, Syrian control of any aspect of the Golan Heights at this point only complicates the issue and compounds the problem, especially with so much instability and so many international powers at work and war in and outside that war-torn country.
Trump tweeted during his first term as president, "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!"
So, how does President Trump hope to engage his art of the deal and heal the Israeli-Palestinian divide?
The Times of Israel reported, "U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he would use the momentum of the freshly agreed upon Gaza ceasefire deal to expand the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-backed agreements struck during his first term that normalized Israel's relations with several Arab countries."
"With this deal in place, my National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords," he added, referring to the agreements that normalized Israel's ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Historically, the U.S. has been Israel's strongest ally outside the Middle East, and Israel has been the strongest ally of the U.S. in the Middle East. And it needs to stay that way.
One thing I know for sure is that we all can make a powerful contribution toward achieving peace – it's something my wife, Gena, and I often come back to when we see the mess in the Middle East: Follow what the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) commands: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May they prosper who love you.'" (Psalm 122:6)
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump is withdrawing America support, again, from the United Nations' Human Rights Council, according to a Politico report.
He also is pausing funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that was set up specifically to give money to Palestinians, an organization that was revealed to have had employees take part in the Oct. 7, 2024, terror attack by Hamas on Israel.
The publication said it obtained a document outlining the plans.
The moves are like what President Trump did during his first term in office, from 2016-2020.
The HRC long has faced accusations that it gives cover to governments with human rights abuses,
The report explained UNRWA is the "main agency" giving money to the population in Gaza, where Hamas has ruled for years already.
Several staff members were dismissed by the U.N. when it was revealed they may have been involved in the Oct. 7 terror.
The report said a fact sheet from the White House said the Human Rights Council "has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations."
Specifically, the council's repeated attacks on Israel were condemned.
"The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings. In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined," the document explained.
President Trump's order is reported to require Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review and report to the White House "which international organizations, conventions, or treaties that 'promote radical or anti-American sentiment,' with a particular focus on UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization."
That division of the U.N. lost American support several years ago over an anti-Israel bias.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump's strategy to impose tariffs is resulting in rapid results, as Mexico has agreed to send thousands of its troops to help secure its border with America in exchange for a temporary pause in tariffs on its products.
"I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States.
"These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country.
"We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico.
"I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a 'deal' between our two Countries."
It's not just Mexico that has been targeted for tariffs by Trump. America's northern neighbor of Canada is also in U.S. crosshairs.
Trump said Monday morning: "Canada doesn't even allow U.S. Banks to open or do business there. What's that all about?"
"Many such things, but it's also a DRUG WAR, and hundreds of thousands of people have died in the U.S. from drugs pouring through the Borders of Mexico and Canada.
"Just spoke to Justin Trudeau. Will be speaking to him again at 3:00 P.M."