This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
WASHINGTON – J6 prisoners are in the news, after President Donald Trump's Day One mass pardon. However, as WorldNetDaily has learned from some of the prisoners, many are currently stranded in rural areas of the country, surrounded by farmland, with no cellphone, no money and no family members to take them home.
It seems that, leading up to the expected day of unprecedented presidential pardons, the Federal Bureau of Prisons began transferring J6 prisoners to random states in the middle of nowhere.
J6 prisoner Zachary Alam, a former medical school student, called this WorldNetDaily reporter as he was being processed for release out of the Oklahoma prison he was transferred to last week.
Upon news that he too was pardoned, Alam said he fell to his knees last night, thankful to God for his freedom and with immense gratitude for President Trump's courageous decision to allow him and nearly 1,600 other J6 defendants and prisoners to be immediately released.
However, after four years of incarceration in a politically weaponized case that turned his family against him, Alam is now facing homelessness and will be stranded upon release with no transportation.
"I'm in the middle of nowhere, in rural farmland Oklahoma," Alam told WND on a call from the prison Tuesday morning. "They moved me here last week for no apparent reason."
"I've got to get somehow, some way, to Philadelphia with no cell phone, no money and no family to help. I don't even have enough to get an Uber to Oklahoma City, which is at least 40 miles away. There is no Amtrak that leaves today, the next Amtrack available would leave on Wednesday for about $400," he continued. "I am asking the American public for financial assistance with a place to live and enough money to get back to the city I resided before I was arrested."
Alam warned that three other Jan. 6 prisoners who were also housed in the Oklahoma prison will likewise be stranded upon release.
The decision to immediately release the J6 prisoners, referred to by the president as "political hostages," was highly anticipated, but still sudden.
Alam called WND explaining that he has been released to the streets of Oklahoma without even his ID – just a paper ID from the prison.
With the stroke of a pen last night, hours after being sworn in as the 47th president, Trump historically pardoned and commuted the sentence of every person convicted or charged with crimes at the Save America rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump advisers had insisted the pardons would be issued on a case-by-case basis amid continuous emerging reports about federal informants and confidential human sources, but in one fell swoop the president set them all free.
While Alam and the other men will be released within hours of Trump's pardon, correctional officers across the country are reportedly refusing to release the J6ers.
Large crowds gathered outside of the Washington, D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility, the jail notoriously known as the "D.C. Gulag" where hundreds of J6 prisoners were detained for years pretrial.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Middle East/Israel Morning Brief
Released hostages speak of horrors of captivity, deprived of daylight for significant stretches
The three women released from Hamas captivity on Sunday shared their first testimonies from their captivity with N12 exclusively on Monday, cleared for publication by the military censor.
Doron Steinbrecher, Romi Gonen, and Emily Damari relayed they were initially held together but were later separated, according to the Jerusalem Post. They revealed they were only informed of their release on Sunday morning: "We couldn't believe it when we were told we were about to go home."
Even though the women did sometimes receive medical help or medications, they spent significant stretches of time without daylight, confined to underground space, N12 added.
One of the women underwent a medical procedure without anesthesia. She told N12 she thought she would die in Gaza.
Republican lawmakers applaud Trump's removal of controversial imam from inauguration program
Congressional Republicans widely supported President Donald Trump's decision to pull an imam with controversial views on terrorism as a speaker at his inauguration.
While the Trump transition team declined Jewish Insider's requests for comment on why it had removed Imam Husham Al-Husainy from speaking at the inaugural benediction, the imam did not appear at Monday's proceedings despite being listed on an earlier version of the inauguration program.
Other religious leaders featured on the program – Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University; Senior Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of the 180 Church in Detroit; and Rev. Father Frank Mann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn – still spoke as planned during the ceremony, which took place in the Capitol Rotunda.
The Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi informed Defense Minister Israel Katz Tuesday of his intention to resign from his role effective March 6. In a statement, he said the failings of the Israeli military on Oct. 7, 2023 would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"I informed the defense minister today that in recognition of my responsibility in the failures of the IDF on Oct. 7, and while the military has made significant achievements and is in the midst of carrying out the agreement to free hostages, I am asking to end my term on March 6, 2025," Halevi said in a statement, according to Ynet.
"In the remaining time I will complete the inquiries and bolster the IDF's preparedness to face the security challenges. I will transfer command of the IDF in an orderly and meticulous fashion to my replacement. I sent my letter to the prime minister and the defense minister.
President Trump expected to announce immediate halt to UNRWA funding
The United States' 47th President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Monday halting all new foreign aid unless it fits with U.S. strategic goals, according to two incoming senior White House officials.
The aim is to prevent American taxpayers' cash falling into the hands of groups working against the U.S. or promoting 'diversity, equity, inclusion' agendas, for example.
And it will likely immediately halt new U.S. money going to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
It is the agency that distributes aid in Gaza but it has repeatedly been accused of close ties to the terror group Hamas. The UN admitted that nine of its staff may been involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
'The United States and American citizens have been some of the most generous people in the entire world,' an incoming White House policy adviser told DailyMail.com.
'But at this point, we have to understand that foreign policy is domestic policy, and if this is not aligned with our interests, then Uncle Sam should not be opening up his pocketbook any longer.'
IDF chief says military must prepare for 'significant' future operations in Judea and Samaria
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi ordered the military on Monday to prepare for counter-terror operations in Judea and Samaria amid an uptick in terror following the ceasefire in Gaza.
"In addition to the intense defensive preparations in the Gaza Strip, we must be prepared for significant operations in Judea and Samaria in the coming days to get ahead of and catch the terrorists before they reach our citizens," Halevi stated following a situational assessment, and reported in the Jewish News Syndicate.
Halevi's remarks came hours after one IDF soldier was killed and four others were wounded, one seriously, by a roadside bomb in the Arab village of Tammun, northeast of Nablus (Shechem) in Samaria.
Concerns are also growing in Jerusalem that the release of hundreds of Palestinian terrorists as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas – many of whom will be allowed to return to Judea, Samaria and the eastern part of the country's capital – has the potential to ignite more terror in the area.
Hamas in a statement issued on Tuesday morning called on all terrorists in Judea and Samaria to "rise in a sweeping wave of anger to deter the settlers" after protests against the ceasefire deal led to riots and the torching of Palestinian structures by Jewish extremists.
Poll: 21% of Americans prefer Hamas over Israel
Twenty-one percent of U.S. voters support the Hamas terrorist group over Israel, according to a Harvard/Harris poll.
One quarter of U.S. Democrats support Hamas. For Republicans, 19% back the terror group, and for independent voters the number is 20%, the survey says, according to the Times of Israel.
Support for the terrorists is highest among 25- to 34-year-olds, at 32%. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 21% back Hamas; in the 35-44 age group, 29%; in the 45-54 age group, 23%; in the 55-64 age group, 17%; and for those over 65, 10%.
Democrats are most in favor of the ceasefire deal, at 87%, followed by Republicans, 81%, and independents, 78%.
Among all voters, 57% believe Hamas agreed to the hostage deal because of the incoming Trump administration, and 43% credit the Biden administration.
Sydney daycare center firebombed graffiti anti-Semitic message
A Sydney suburb kindergarten was set on fire and defaced with antisemitic graffiti late Monday in what Australian Jewish groups suspected to be arson and vandalism motivated by antisemitism, reported the Jerusalem Post.
The New South Wales Police Force said they were investigating a suspicious fire at a Maroubra childcare center which had caused extensive damage to the building. Local sources said there were signs of forced entry and the fire had started within the building.
The kindergarten was not a Jewish community facility, but local sources said there was antisemitic graffiti on the premises. Police said in their statement that offensive graffiti was spray-painted on an external wall, and law enforcement was treating the incident as a hate crime.
The Australian Jewish Association said on X the incident occurred near a synagogue. Some believe that due to the proximity of a synagogue, vandals may have been seeking to target a nearby Jewish kindergarten attached to that house of worship.
Trump not confident Gaza deal will hold through all 3 phases
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday he's not confident that Israel's ceasefire deal with the Hamas terrorist group will hold through all three phases, according to the Jewish News Syndicate.
"It's not our war. It is their war. I am not confident. But I think they're very weakened on the other side," he said in response to a question in the Oval Office while signing orders in the first hours of his presidency.
Asked about the future governance of the Gaza Strip, the president said he believed "you certainly can't have the people that were there," in an apparent reference to the Iranian-backed Hamas terror organization.
Iran's Crown Prince writes open letter to Trump urging him to bring down Tehran's Islamic theocracy
U.S. President Donald Trump can use his so-called maximum pressure policy on Iran to put an end to the Islamic Republic's tyranny, exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi said in a letter warning the US president against trusting the ruling clerics, reported Iran International.
"No American President has yet had the courage to put an end to this tyranny," Pahlavi said in the letter he published on X as Trump was sworn in at the US Capitol.
"You can," he said. "Not through war, but by maintaining maximum pressure on the regime and providing maximum support to the brave Iranian people."
Trump has in his previous interviews and speeches appeared to rule out seeking regime change in Iran. In an October interview with Iranian-American podcaster Patrick Bet-David, Trump was asked if he would like to see Iran change its ruling system. He replied, "We can't get totally involved in all that. We can't run ourselves, let's face it."
Hamas claims 4 unnamed female hostages to be released Saturday
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Tuesday that four Israeli women hostages will be freed in return for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, in the second such release under a ceasefire deal.
Nunu said the Palestinian Islamist movement would release "four Israeli female detainees in exchange" for a second group of Palestinian prisoners, according to al-Arabiya.
Sen. Lindsey Graham calls on U.S. to help Israel strike Iranian nuclear sites
There is no point in negotiating with Iran about its nuclear program and President Donald Trump should instead help Israel bomb it, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R–S.C., said.
The comments by the hawkish South Carolina senator who is a longtime Trump confidant are among the most direct yet by a senior decision-maker supporting a US military intervention on Iran, reported Iran International.
"The next question for the world is what do we do about the Iran nuclear program," Graham told CBS "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
The veteran senator is one of the biggest advocates of a more muscular policy abroad and is a vocal supporter of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he credited with delivering heavy blows to Iran-backed groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
Hamas promises to release dual Russian-Israeli national 'alive and well'
According to media reports published on Ynet, the Russian ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov said he had received a "firm promise" hostage Sasha Troufanov would be released "alive and well."
Without putting a firm timeline on the possibility, Viktorov said Troufanov could be free within three to four weeks.
An Amazon employee, he was kidnapped to Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and has been held for more than 470 days. Troufanov turned 29 in captivity and is part of the list of 33 hostages set to be released as the first part of the current deal. He was cruelly made to participate by the terrorists in a propaganda video.
Trump revokes sanctions on Judea and Samaria settlers
U.S. President Donald Trump revoked a host of what he called "harmful" executive orders and actions under former President Joe Biden, including Executive Order 14115 of Feb. 1, 2024, which sanctioned Jews living in Judea and Samaria accused of "undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.[sic]"
On Feb. 1, Biden froze four Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, who he said were guilty of committing violent crimes, from the U.S. banking system. The Biden administration sanctioned five Israeli entities and three people for "violent extremism" on July 11, but it got the name of one of the Israelis wrong and sanctioned the wrong person.
On Nov. 18, the Biden administration sanctioned three more Israelis and three entities, again saying those sanctioned "undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank and the safety of both Israelis and Palestinians."
In the final week of his presidency, Biden extended the national emergency he declared on Feb. 1 in Judea and Samaria for another year, through Feb. 1, 2026.
Global anti-Semitic incidents skyrocketed 340% in 2024
There was a staggering 340 percent increase in total antisemitic incidents worldwide in 2024 compared to 2022, according to newly unveiled research from the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Announced on Monday, the new report presented by the two groups to Israeli President Isaac Herzog also showed antisemitic incidents skyrocketed globally last year by nearly 100 percent compared to 2023, reported the Algemeiner.
Researchers chose to analyze data starting in 2022 in order to assess a year without a major event inflaming antisemitism, namely the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas's invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The report documented similar levels of antisemitic incidents growing in both North America and Europe last year. The United States saw an increase of 288% over the totals of 2022, while antisemitic atrocities in Canada rose by 562%. Meanwhile, incidents in France surged by over 350%, and the United Kingdom experienced a spike of 450%, with nearly 2,000 acts of antisemitism in the first half of 2024 alone.
Keir Starmer claims 'no cover-up' at Southport killer's extremist links
The U.K.'s embattled Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer shrugged off claims of a cover-up regarding the murder of three pre-teen girls at a Southport Taylor Swift-themed dance party, as he insisted there would be a full inquiry into how the state failed to stop the killer going on the rampage, the Daily Mail reported.
The PM told a press conference in Downing Street that people were right to 'demand answers' over 'failings' in the case of Axel Rudakubana.
He stressed that the probe should be 'unburdened by cultural sensitivities' and institutions will not be allowed to 'deflect' responsibility. 'I'm angry about it… Nothing will be off the table in this inquiry,' he said.
However, he flatly rejected allegations of a 'cover-up' of terrorist links in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity in July – which was followed by a wave of rioting across the country. He confirmed he knew about the details 'as they were emerging' but could not risk the case collapsing and the 'vile' perpetrator walking away free.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In the days just before the 2020 presidential election, 51 so-called "experts" from America's intelligence community unleashed a letter that claimed, falsely, that the Biden family scandals documented in Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop were Russian disinformation.
They weren't, the claim was a lie, and the scandals were true.
But that letter, part of a scheme that included the FBI's interference in the election when it told media outlets to suppress the information from the laptop, was found in a later polling likely to be the reason Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021, and not President Donald Trump.
In short, that scheme likely cost Trump the 2020 election.
Now President Trump, inaugurated this week for his second term in office, has lifted the security clearances for all 51 of those who signed the letter.
And in a second blow, he's calling for an investigation.
"Within 90 days of this order, the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, shall submit a report to the President through the National Security Advisor that details: (i) any additional inappropriate activity that occurred within the Intelligence Community, by anyone contracted by the Intelligence Community or by anyone who held a security clearance, related to the letter signed by the 51 former intelligence officials…"
The order calls for recommendations for "any disciplinary action … that should be taken against anyone who engaged in inappropriate conduct related to the letter signed by the 51 former intelligence officials."
A report at RedState explained, "That's where things have the potential to get very interesting."
The report explained, "Subsequent congressional investigations into the letter and its signatories have shown that intel officials did not act alone in attempting to delegitimize the Hunter Biden laptop story. In a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, former acting CIA Director Mike Morrell testified that he received a call from former Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussing the laptop story."
Blinken at that time was a Biden campaign adviser and Morrell said that conversation "spurred" him to gather the various signatures that supported the false claims.
Morrell stated that before the contact from the Biden campaign, he "did not" have any intent to write that statement. He confirmed to Congress that the call "triggered that intent."
The RedState report explained, "In other words, the Biden campaign was the impetus for the letter, intel officials swore to it, the media dutifully refused to cover it, and social media shut down those who did. It was a coordinated election interference campaign. Making the 2020 presidential election rigged."
Of course, Democrats have claimed for the last four years that President Trump's contention that election result was "rigged" is wrong.
Neither Blinken nor the 51 were pardoned by Biden, who pardoned thousands others, on his way out the door.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A movement to declare elephants "persons" and give them rights to habeas corpus legal actions has proven to be a step too far even for the leftists on the Colorado Supreme Court, who just months ago had attempted to remove President Donald Trump from the state's 2024 primary election ballot.
That move was overturned promptly by the U.S. Supreme Court and now it remains to be seen whether the justices' new position, regarding an organization claiming to represent the best interests of Kimba, Lucky, Missy, LouLou and Jambo, African elephants at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, is upheld.
Courthouse News has reported on the case brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project, which demanded that the courts expand the definition of "persons" to include the elephants.
The state's high court rejected the attempt, concluding that the Colorado habeas statute applies to people and not animals, "no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated they may be."
Justice Maria Berkenkotter wrote for the court that "because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim," the report explained.
The NRP had demanded in a habeas petition in 2023 that the elephants be freed from the confines of the zoo and be moved to a "sanctuary."
After all, the petition argued, they are highly intelligent and autonomous.
The case earlier was dismissed by the El Paso County district court.
The NRP then appealed the state Supreme Court, which now has said the historical importance of habeas is that it's been important to challenge "various forms of unjust detention," the report noted.
However, that same history doesn't apply to animals.
Berkentrotter confirmed Colorado's habeas law doesn't define "person," but it is defined elsewhere in state law to include an individual, corporation, estate, government or other legal entity.
Berkentrotter said if animals are to be included among "persons," that would be a redefinition for the state's General Assembly to make explicit.
The opinion noted that no Colorado court, or court anywhere else in the U.S., has determined a "nonhuman species" to qualify for "personhood."
The NRP said the decision was an injustice, and it will continue fighting the "notion" that it finds in an "entrenched status quo."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The federal government's orchestrated "shock and awe" campaign against the Jan. 6 protesters is over, with President Trump's pardon or sentence commutations for some 1,500 or 1,600 people targeted by Washington.
But it may be rebounding against the FBI and other agencies that participated.
"The shock may be gone for these defendants, but it may only be beginning for the Justice Department and the FBI," warned constitutional expert Jonathan Turley.
The federal government essentially had admitted it wanted to scare and intimidate Americans after those protesters gathered in Washington on that day and objected to what they viewed as a skewed president election.
Evidence later confirmed their concerns, as the $400 million plus that Mark Zuckerberg handed out to election officials who often used it to recruit Democrat voters was revealed as an undue influence.
Further was the undue influence of the FBI's decision to interfere with the results. That bureau claimed, falsely, that the Biden family scandals uncovered in the laptop computer Hunter Biden abandoned were Russian disinformation, when they all were true.
But while most of the protesters simply walked into the Capitol building and later left, some acted on their rage, vandalizing and even physically confronting police and security.
The government responded with a campaign to scare as many Americans as it could.
Turley explained, "Four years ago, the Justice Department set out to send a chilling message to the nation. In an interview with CBS News a year later, Justice Department official Michael Sherwin indicated that they wanted to send a message with the harsh treatment of defendants."
Sherwin had confirmed, "our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe … it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they're, like, 'If we go there, we're gonna get charged.' … We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did."
The DOJ did this by keeping people in prison for offenses like trespassing. Government lawyers insisted that defendants be kept behind bars, sometimes in gruesome circumstances, for years awaiting trial. Then they enhanced charges and demanded lengthy prison sentences.
Turley confirmed the widespread opinion that those who engaged in violence should have been arrested and punished.
But he said the "excessive treatment of some of the January 6th defendants undermined the credibility of their prosecutions for many."
"The Justice Department rounded up hundreds and, even though most were charged with relatively minor crimes of unlawful entry or trespass, the Justice Department opposed the release of many from jail and sought absurdly long sentences in some cases," he said.
He cited the case against "so-called QAnon Shaman."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Israel's most senior military figure, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi released a statement he had spoken to Defense Minister Israel Katz and tended his resignation – effective March 6 – after accepting responsibility for the IDF's failings over the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion and subsequent massacre of some 1,200 Israelis, as well as 251 being taken hostage.
In his statement, he said those failings would "haunt me for the rest of my life."
"I notified the defense minister today (Tuesday) that in acknowledgment of my responsibility for the IDF's failure on Oct. 7 and at this juncture when the IDF has recorded significant achievements and is implementing a hostage release agreement, I am requesting to conclude my tenure on March 6, 2025," he wrote in an official statement.
"During the remaining period, I will complete all investigations and reinforce the IDF's operational capabilities to meet security challenges," he added.
"Throughout the past four decades, protecting Israel's security has been the mission that defined my life," Halevi wrote.
"On the morning of Oct. 7, the IDF under my command failed to fulfill its fundamental mission of protecting Israeli citizens. The State of Israel has endured a devastating and painful toll – in lives lost, in hostages taken, and in both physical and psychological trauma. Despite countless acts of valor from many – our security forces, IDF soldiers and commanders, and brave civilians – these heroic efforts could not prevent the catastrophic outcome. The weight of my responsibility for this terrible failure remains with me every day, every hour, and will continue to do so for the remainder of my life," he emphasized.
Halevi assumed his current role in January 2023, replacing Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and following a career which included serving in crucial leadership positions such as director of Military Intelligence, commander of the Southern Command, and deputy chief of staff. With his resignation, Halevi will become the third-shortest serving permanent IDF chief of staff, who stepped down after some 20 months following the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Israel's Kan News public broadcaster noted Halevi requested to Katz he conclude his position after the first 42-day phase of the current hostage deal with Hamas is expected to end on March 1.
The current commander of the Southern Command, which has responsibility for the area around the Gaza Strip, Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelman, who assumed office in July 2023, less than three months before the events of Oct. 7, also announced the conclusion of his tenure. He too spoke of the weight of failure that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Prior to Halevi's resignation, the most senior military personality to fall on their sword was the former head of the IDF's military intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aharon Haliva, who tendered his resignation in April 2024. He called for a commission of inquiry into the military and intelligence failures of Oct. 7, a position Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strenuously resisted with claims it would be inappropriate while the war is still being fought.
Families of victims of the Oct. 7 massacre called Halevi's resignation an "excellent start," saying other senior military personnel and politicians should follow suit.
Indeed, there will be increased pressure on Netanyahu to similarly resign. In the past he has artfully tried to shift the blame for the massive statewide failures on Oct. 7 solely on the military and intelligence chiefs. And now the heads of the Knesset's opposition have called on the prime minister to do as the military's top man has just done. Yair Lapid, leader of the official opposition thanked Halevi for his years of service, and in the same X post said, "Now let the prime minister and his entire disastrous government take responsibility and resign."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A leftist ideologue who preaches at the Washington National Cathedral Tuesday ranted about transgenders and illegal aliens to President Trump, who had gone to the iconic church in the nation's capital for a prayer service.
Online reports said Trump and Vice President JD Vance were "blindsided" by the political activism in the National Prayer Service.
It was Marianne Budde, a bishop at the church, who "unleashed a wild sermon claiming trans kids were 'fearing for their lives' due to him being in the Oval Office," according to a Daily Mail report.
It said Trump "was left is disbelief as he was forced to listen to a woke bishop."
"Trump sat stony-faced in the front row, next to First Lady Melania Trump, as the bishop claimed some people in America were afraid following his election." The report said.
Her diatribe:
"I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country that are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops, and clean our office buildings who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals, they might not be citizens or have the proper documentation. The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away."
Trump and Vance visibly rolled their eyes during the remarks.
WATCH:
The report noted Trump showed no reaction, but "other members of the congregation looked uncomfortable."
When asked later Tuesday what he thought of the church service, Trump replied: "Not too exciting, was it? I didn't think it was a good service. They can do much better."
Additonally, the report said, Trump declined to criticize Budde, but others didn't hesitate.
"The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list," said Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., on social media.
Budde, the report said, is notorious for calling, during President Trump's first term, for him to be replaced.
She also inserts her "racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons" and more ideologies into her speeches.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Joe Biden must "know something" that made him think that his family needed presidential pardons, which Biden essentially slipped under the door on his way out of the White House.
"You must know something that other people do not, and what?" McCarthy explained. "Why do you wait until 30 minutes before? Why did you tell the American public you would never pardon your son, and you do it now?"
McCarthy explained the pardons "suggest that members of Biden's family have done 'something wrong,'" the report confirmed.
"Terrible. Terrible. Think about what everybody else had gone through. Why pardon your family? It makes no sense to me. … All it does is put a cloud over that you did something wrong."
In fact, Biden son Hunter was pardoned Dec. 2 after he had been convicted of gun felonies and after he had pleaded guilty to tax charges. He was facing up to years in prison.
Joe Biden had multiple times promised Americans he would let the juries and judicial system decide Hunter's fate, then he pardoned him from all crimes for more than a decade.
Then just hours before his presidency ended, Joe Biden pardoned brothers James and Francis Biden, James' wife Sara, his sister Valerie Owens and her husband John Owens.
"The difference here is whether you agree or disagree about what President Trump's going to do, he told the American public ahead of time," McCarthy said. "They put that into consideration whether they vote for him for president, so he's just keeping a campaign promise."
The Washington Examiner reported McCarthy cited a "double standard" for Biden's pardons for family members and President Trump's pardons for J6 protesters.
He said in an interview with NBC, "This is the difference. This president told the American public, while he was campaigning for office, 'If I'm elected president, I will pardon these people.' Compare this to Joe Biden, who said he would never pardon his son, who now, on the very last day in the last 30 minutes, pardons his entire family.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
With the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump (for the second time), we have once again celebrated another milestone in our history.
It's interesting to note that nearly every one of our presidents has been sworn in on the Holy Bible and uttered the oath, "So help me God." George Washington began the process and it has continued to this day – despite the claims of those trying to erase America's rich Christian heritage.
For example, our second president, John Adams, closed his Inaugural Address in 1797 in this way: "… with humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect."
Such a sentiment from Adams does not fit the agenda of those clamoring for what Richard John Neuhaus called the "naked public square," that is, the expunging of all references to God in the public arena. Washington's successor said a decent respect for the Christian faith is "among the best recommendations for the public service."
His son, John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, quoted Scripture (Psalm 127:1) in his Inaugural Address in 1825: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in Vain." Adams also referenced his need for God's help: "With fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country."
Our ninth president, William Henry Harrison warned the nation that we need to watch out for "the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the Savior." And he added, "I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness."
Our 22nd and 24th president was Grover Cleveland – the only one to win election in non-consecutive terms … until Donald J. Trump last year. In 1885, President Cleveland declared, "And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledge the power and goodness of Almighty God who presides over the destiny of nations."
In 1925, our 30th president, John Calvin Coolidge stated that "America seeks no empires built on blood and force. … The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the Cross." As in the cross of Jesus Christ.
In 1953, our 34th president, Dwight Eisenhower, actually opened his Inaugural Address in prayer, saying, "Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the Executive branch of Government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.
"Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong. … Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race or calling … so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen."
Jimmy Carter, our 39th president, whose funeral was just held, quoted Scripture (Micah 6:8) in his 1977 Inaugural Address: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
In 1989, George H.W. Bush said, "And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads: Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. … Make us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: 'Use power to help people.' For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen."
These examples are not anomalies. Every president has mentioned God in one way or another in Inaugural Addresses, including President Trump on Monday, as he declared, "We will not forget our country. We will not forget our Constitution. And we will not forget our God."
Lastly, here's another presidential Inaugural statement: "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty." Those were the words of 16th President Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
America is indeed one nation under God, and our Inaugural ceremonies highlight that fact.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Leftists – and most prominently U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D–N.Y. – took to X in droves Monday night, following Elon Musk's speech after President Donald Trump's inauguration, claiming the tech billionaire had given a Nazi salute.
A clearly pumped and emotional Elon, while saying "My heart goes out to you," touched his heart and immediately raised his right arm in appreciation of his audience. It was instinctive – and potentially not brilliantly thought-through. But a Nazi salute it was not.
However, the attempt by leftists and a corporate media whose ratings are in the toilet to equate Musk – and therefore, the whole MAGA movement with Nazism – shows they still haven't learned the lessons from the crushing 2024 election defeat.
X was flooded with claims and counter-claims. Those defending Musk said it was a Roman salute, while also referencing his self-acknowledged position on the autism spectrum and his arm-raise was a misplaced expression of exuberance.
Meanwhile, others post images of members of the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, side-by-side with Musk, claiming it was indeed a Nazi salute. Other accounts showed stills of four Democrat politicians – President Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton – with their right hands outstretched, showing that catching people in a certain pose can be twisted to suit a particular narrative.
The overwrought reaction to Musk's salute is all the more galling as Leftist politicians and their defenders in the media never raised a peep of protest against pro-Hamas supporters performing genuine Nazi salutes at their anti-Jewish rallies, promoting the actual genocide of Jews, both in the Jewish state and the world beyond. However, a neurodivergent person makes an inelegant gesture and they have no problem jumping up and down over it.
Elon bit back at the critics, saying they needed "better dirty tricks," and that "the 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired."
He's right. At Trump's Madison Square Garden rally at the end of October, the compromised media, which overlooked President Biden's infirmity until it became a glaring national embarrassment, harped on about how it was a Nazi rally, redolent of a 20,000-strong event back in 1939, which genuinely was pro-Nazi. Independent observers such as Triggernometry host Konstantin Kisin, remarked he had never seen so many visibly Orthodox Jews and Israeli flags at a Nazi rally.
Former New York assemblyman Doc Hikind posted a powerful defense of Elon on X. In a previous post he showed images ofMusk on stage in an interview wearing the hostage dog tag in honor of those still held in Hamas captivity and barely able to keep his emotions in check, as well as visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp alongside Orthodox Jewish Conservative personality Ben Shapiro.
In the video, Hikind, whose parents survived the horrors of the Holocaust in Auschwitz, called the accusation "pathetic and sick," adding Elon was a "friend of the Jewish people." He also said "Musk is an individual who cares deeply about America," finishing his defense by exclaiming, "Shame on you, shame on you, and go to hell!"