All posts tagged "gaza"

Pope snubs Trump's White House invite citing 'critical issues' with president

Pope Leo XIV rejected President Donald Trump's invitation to join his Board of Peace with a serious response, according to reports Wednesday.

The Vatican issued a statement and declined the White House's January request, making it clear that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church does not want to be involved with Trump's Gaza project, The New Republic reported.

The Vatican’s secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that the Pope expressed several concerns and "will not participate," The Independent reported.

“For us, there are ... some critical issues that should be resolved,” Parolin told reporters. “One concern is that, at the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.”

The Pope has been critical of the president and his administration. He was among several world leaders invited to participate on the board and "supervise the ceasefire in Gaza and coordinate the strip’s reconstruction following the conflict between Hamas and Israel," according to The Independent. Trump has also said that the board would look to address global clashes, but some have viewed his move as an attempt to add an "alternative multilateral forum to the UN," which Trump has long complained about.

The Pope has disagreed with Trump's move. In September, he made a subtle comment calling out the president, saying “someone who says ‘I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

And in November, the Pope, who is also the first American-born Vatican leader, went into further detail in his criticism.

“I think we have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have. If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts, there’s a system of justice,” the Pope said.

“But when people are living good lives, and many of them for 10, 15, 20 years, to treat them in a way that is extremely disrespectful to say the least—and there’s been some violence unfortunately—I think that the bishops have been very clear in what they said,” he said. “I would just invite all people in the United States to listen to them.”

As of now, only 19 countries have joined Trump's board, including Argentina, Hungary, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both Israel and Russia — countries that are both accused of war crimes — have been offered invitations but only Israel has decided to join the board so far.

"The Vatican and the pope’s rejection will hurt the board’s credibility, but that isn’t likely to change Trump’s mind," according to The New Republic.

Here's why this malignant fool is the last person to deserve a Nobel Peace Prize

Trump recently had his name engraved on the U.S. Institute of Peace — now renamed the “Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace.” Last week, the White House confirmed the renaming, calling it “a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.”

Actually, it’s a reminder of what a strong malignant narcissist can accomplish when untethered from reality.

On Friday, Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the world football league, awarded Trump the first (and likely last) annual FIFA Peace Prize — along with a hagiographic video of Trump and “peace.”

What FIFA has to do with peace is anyone’s guess, but Infantino is evidently trying to curry favor with Trump. (Infantino, by the way, oversaw the 2020 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, defending and minimizing Qatar’s miserable human rights record. He also played a key role in selecting Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, notwithstanding the Saudi murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.)

Both Trump’s absurd renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the equally absurd FIFA award are parts of Trump’s campaign to get the Nobel Peace Prize — something he has coveted since Barack Obama was awarded it in 2009 (anything Obama got credited with, Trump wants to discredit or match).

Too late for this year. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado of Venezuela, “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” (The prize is awarded annually on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, in a formal ceremony at the Oslo City Hall. Trump has his eye on the 2026 prize.)

Ironically, Trump has declared war on Venezuela, without congressional authorization — causing the death so far of at least 87 people bombed by American military jets targeting vessels allegedly carrying drugs into the United States.

Those 87 include two people who barely survived a first bombing, only to be bombed again. (Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who saw a video of the second strike in a closed-door briefing, told CBS’s Face the Nation that the two survivors “were barely alive, much less engaging in hostilities,” when the follow-up strike took place.)

Trump has designated a Venezuelan criminal group — Cartel de los Soles — as a Foreign Terrorist Organization led by Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Yet analysts have pointed out that the Cartel de los Soles is not a hierarchical group but an umbrella term used to describe corrupt Venezuelan officials who have allowed cocaine to transit through the country.

Could it be that Trump wants access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves?

He doesn’t seem to be particularly upset about cocaine trafficking. While he’s bombing small vessels in the Caribbean allegedly for smuggling fentanyl into the United States, Trump is pardoning Honduras’ former president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of trafficking large amounts of cocaine into the United States.

Trump is also in the process of giving eastern Ukraine to Vladimir Putin. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf pal and itinerant diplomat, has offered Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, a plan for carving up disputed territory in a way likely to appeal to Putin.

As revealed in a transcript of a recent meeting, Witkoff told Ushakov, “Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere.”

Witkoff also advised Ushakov on how Putin can get the best deal for Russia — by having Putin flatter America’s narcissist-in-chief:

”Make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the president on this achievement [in Gaza], that you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen.”

Ushakov responded:

“Hey Steve, I agree with you that he will congratulate, he will say that Mr. Trump is a real peace man and so-and-so. That he will say.”

While Witkoff has been seeking a “peace” deal in Ukraine by giving Vladimir Putin much of what he wants, Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner have been seeking billions of dollars in business deals with Russia. It’s a brazen conflict of interest.

Witkoff spoke on the record to The Wall Street Journal, characterizing the talks with Russia over oil, gas, and rare-earth minerals as “a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because everybody’s thriving.”

Everyone’s thriving, that is, except Ukrainians and those conscripted into the Russian army.

Other potential beneficiaries of the deal include ExxonMobil, along with a Trump donor and college pal of Donald Trump Jr. with the improbable name Gentry Beach. Beach hopes to acquire a 9.9 percent stake in a Russian Arctic gas project.

Meanwhile, Trump has allowed Benjamin Netanyahu to continue bombing Gaza, even after declaring a ceasefire there.

Peace prize? Please.

Trump is taking credit for achieving “peace” between nations that weren’t even at war.

He’s also trying to change the name of the Department of Defense back to the Department of War.

And he’s conjuring up “enemies within” the United States as pretexts for prosecuting political opponents, attacking American universities, and attempting to stifle media criticism of himself and his administration.

According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize is awarded to the person who in the preceding year “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Nobel’s will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament.

Memo to the Norwegian Parliament and the Nobel committee: No president in American history deserves the Nobel Peace Prize less than does Donald J. Trump.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
Robert Reich's new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org

A reckoning awaits these out-of-touch lawmakers hopelessly in denial

Last month, some House members publicly acknowledged that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. It’s a judgment that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch unequivocally proclaimed a year ago. Israeli human-rights organizations have reached the same conclusion. But such clarity is sparse in Congress.

And no wonder. Genocide denial is needed for continuing to appropriate billions of dollars in weapons to Israel, as most legislators have kept doing. Congress members would find it very difficult to admit that Israeli forces are committing genocide while voting to send them more weaponry.

Three weeks ago, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) introduced a resolution titled “Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Twenty-one House colleagues, all of them Democrats, signed on as co-sponsors. They account for 10 percent of the Democrats in Congress.

In sharp contrast, a national Quinnipiac Poll found that 77 percent of Democrats “think Israel is committing genocide.” That means there is a 67 percent gap between what the elected Democrats are willing to say and what the people who elected them believe. The huge gap has big implications for the party’s primaries in the midterm elections next year, and then in the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

One of the likely candidates in that race, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), is speaking out in ways that fit with the overwhelming views of Democratic voters.

“I agree with the UN commission's heartbreaking finding that there is a genocide in Gaza,” he tweeted as autumn began. “What matters is what we do about it – stop military sales that are being used to kill civilians and recognize a Palestinian state.”

Consistent with that position, the California congressman was one of the score of Democrats who signed on as co-sponsors of Tlaib’s resolution the day it was introduced.

In the past, signers of such a resolution would have reason to fear the wrath — and the electoral muscle — of AIPAC, the Israel-can-do-no-wrong lobby. But its intimidation power is waning. AIPAC’s support for Israel does not represent the views of the public, a reality that has begun to dawn on more Democratic officeholders.

“With American support for the Israeli government’s management of the conflict in Gaza undergoing a seismic reversal, and Democratic voters’ support for the Jewish state dropping off steeply, AIPAC is becoming an increasingly toxic brand for some Democrats on Capitol Hill,” the New York Times reported this fall. Notably, “some Democrats who once counted AIPAC among their top donors have in recent weeks refused to take the group’s donations.”

Khanna has become more and more willing to tangle with AIPAC, which is now paying for attack ads against him.

On Thanksgiving, he tweeted about Gaza and accused AIPAC of “asking people to disbelieve what they saw with their own eyes.” Khanna elaborated in a campaign email days ago, writing: “Any politician who caves to special interests on Gaza will never stand up to special interests on corruption, healthcare, housing, or the economy. If we can’t speak with moral clarity when thousands of children are dying, we won’t stand for working Americans when corporate power comes knocking.”

AIPAC isn’t the only well-heeled organization for Israel now struggling with diminished clout. Democratic Majority for Israel, an offshoot of AIPAC that calls itself “an American advocacy group that supports pro-Israel policies within the United States Democratic Party,” is now clearly misnamed. Every bit of recent polling shows that in the interests of accuracy, the organization should change its name to “Democratic Minority for Israel.”

Yet the party’s leadership remains stuck in a bygone era. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, typifies how disconnected so many party leaders are from the actual views of Democratic voters. Speaking in Brooklyn three months ago, she flatly claimed that “nine out of 10 Democrats are pro-Israel.” She did not attempt to explain how that could be true when more than seven out of 10 Democrats say Israel is guilty of genocide.

The political issue of complicity with genocide will not go away.

Last week, Amnesty International released a detailed statement documenting that “Israeli authorities are still committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, by continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.” But in Congress, almost every Republican and a large majority of Democrats remain stuck in public denial about Israel’s genocidal policies.

Such denial will be put to the electoral test in Democratic primaries next year, when most incumbents will face an electorate far more morally attuned to Gaza than they are. What easily passes for reasoned judgment and political smarts in Congress will seem more like cluelessness to many Democratic activists and voters who can provide reality checks with their ballots.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine includes an afterword about the Gaza war.

'Disappointment and irritation': Saudi crown prince slaps down Trump over Israel strategy

President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) had a tense disagreement behind closed doors last week over Saudi Arabia's relationship with Israel and the president's desire for the country to join the Abraham Accords.

Trump had asked MBS to consider joining the peace deal, and the Saudi leader demanded that in return for a peace deal, he would consider it if Israel agreed to "an irreversible, credible and time-bound path" for a Palestinian state, Axios reported on Tuesday.

Israel has said it would oppose a Palestinian state.

The president was apparently upset by the prince's response and had hoped he would agree to normalizing the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel, the report states.

"The best way to say it is disappointment and irritation. The president really wants them to join the Abraham Accords. He tried very hard to talk to him. It was an honest discussion. But MBS is a strong man. He stood his ground," a source told Axios.

MBS made it clear after the meeting, publicly, that it was his position.

"MBS never said no to normalization. The door is open for doing it later. But the two-state solution is an issue," a U.S. official told Axios.

The conversation was reportedly civil — but tough. Trump had expected to make more progress on the foreign policy, which was first signed in 2020, aimed to improve diplomatic ties between Israel and several other Arab nations in the region. Trump considered it a major diplomatic win in his first term.

"Now that Iran's nuclear program has been totally obliterated and the war in Gaza has ended, it is very important to President Trump that all Middle Eastern countries join the Abraham Accords, which will advance peace in the region," a White House official told the outlet.

MBS told Trump that Saudis are not ready to normalize relations with Israel following the Gaza war, which has killed more than 67,000 people, according to Reuters. Nearly a third of those people were children.

"MBS explained to Trump that although he wants to move forward with normalization with Israel, he can't do so now because Saudi public opinion is highly anti-Israel in the aftermath of the Gaza war. He said Saudi society isn't ready for such a move now," three sources told the outlet.

'We will have no choice': Trump threatens to bring American troops to Gaza

President Donald Trump Thursday threatened to bring American troops to Gaza.

Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform:

"If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Trump Monday signed a Gaza ceasefire deal outlining steps to end attacks in the region. More than 20 world leaders joined Trump in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for a peace summit.

Palestinians cannot know peace till Trump and his fellow ghoul finally leave the stage

Before Donald Trump is officially canonized for ending the Israeli-Palestinian war and bringing peace to the Middle East, let’s do a reality check on Trump’s role and on the ultimate long-term impact.

First, it was past time for Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war and he knew it. He had accomplished his goals: severely degrading Hamas, killing or injuring 10 percent of Gaza’s Palestinian population including over 20,000 children and 10,000 women, displacing nearly 90 percent of the population, and destroying Gaza’s infrastructure to ensure the displaced would come home to cataclysmic, unlivable ruin. He was also losing support in Israel every day the onslaught continued.

Decades ago, Netanyahu was heard on tape as saying of the Palestinians, "We must beat them up, not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until it's unbearable."

Netanyahu accomplished his goal.

As the war raged on in 2025, Trump’s disdain for the Palestinians was evident. Trump offered to turn Gaza into a real estate magnate’s Shangri-La, assumedly free of Palestinians. He continued to supply Israel’s mighty military force with more weaponry against a woefully inferior opponent. Under Trump, the US voted against United Nations resolutions demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestinian war, killing the resolutions.

Trump refused to condemn Israel’s massacre of Palestinian civilians while the world’s International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, for using “starvation as a method of warfare,” restricting humanitarian aid, and intentionally targeting civilians. Under Trump, the US has refused to join the 147 nations that recognize Palestinian statehood or even commit to supporting a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution.

Trump has been Netanyahu’s boy since the beginning of the war, enabling Netanyahu to carry out his scorched earth campaign until the Palestinians were ground into the Gaza dust, their territory destroyed. Netanyahu was more than happy to reward Trump’s unconditional support by giving Trump an uncontested slam dunk: ending the war after Netanyahu had accomplished all he wanted.

Of course, there will be no just peace agreement coming out of negotiations. Israel will maintain its military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, further increase its stranglehold on the territories, build more Jewish settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law, and prolong the misery under which Gaza residents will suffer for decades.

A two-state solution, which any just peace agreement must include, will remain sheer fantasy until Netanyahu is no longer in power. As Netanyahu said in 1999 after sabotaging the Oslo Accords, which provided a roadmap for Palestinian statehood, “I’m proud I blocked a Palestinian state.” A two-state solution has always been anathema to Netanyahu, the Palestinians unwanted interlopers on lands rightfully belonging to Israel.

An elaborate diplomatic charade will occur among participants in the peace negotiations that will ultimately end in Israel maintaining iron-clad control over Palestinian territories and making no significant concessions. Trump will brag about the settlement bringing peace to the Middle East when all it will do is ensure decades of subjugation of a badly broken Palestinian people to their brutal occupier.

The entire world is thankful that the slaughter of Palestinian civilians and devastation of their homeland has ended. Netanyahu, however, should never be forgiven for his brutally asymmetrical response to the Hamas attack on Israel, resulting in 82 percent of the war’s casualties being Palestinians, 56 times as many as Israelis.

It should also be remembered that Trump never wavered in his support for Netanyahu, that he refused to condemn the annihilation of Palestinians, that he continued providing weapons to Israel, that his administration killed UN ceasefire resolutions, and that his end-the-war overtures came after Netanyahu had demolished Gaza and killed 67,000 Palestinians.

Netanyahu and Trump are kindred spirits, comrades in corruption, in extreme-right politics, in authoritarian rule, in undermining their countries’ democracies, and in their indifference to the suffering of Palestinians. In a 2001 tape discussing sabotaging the Oslo Accords, Netanyahu wasn’t concerned about the US response because the US, he said was “easily manipulated.” That remark was certainly prescient regarding his relationship with Trump.

Netanyahu knows that as long as Trump is staunchly in his corner, he can do whatever he wants and the rest of the world be damned, including the UN, the International Criminal Court, international law, and the 149 nations that recognize Palestinian statehood. Trump’s loyalty has proven unshakeable throughout the war and will continue throughout the peace talks.

Trump did not end the Israeli-Palestinian war. He was handed the “honor” on a silver platter by his grateful political doppelgänger. Until both men have mercifully left the political stage, Palestinians will be left twisting in the bitter wind.

Tom Tyner is a freelance editorialist, satirist, political analyst, blogger, author and retired English instructor

Trump's Nobel Prize desperation now a 'running joke' among diplomats

President Donald Trump's desperation to win a Nobel Peace Prize is now a "running joke" among diplomats at their regular gathering.

When Trump returned to office earlier this year, he made it clear he wants the famed award, according to Sidney Blumenthal's analysis for The Guardian.

"In just a few hours, the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway will make its announcement, which is a major factor to why Trump has pushed the Gaza ceasefire talks to Thursday, hours before the European group will decide the award recipient," Blumenthal explains.

"The obsession has become a running joke among foreign diplomats seeking to lobby their interests, including at a regular breakfast among European ambassadors where a common topic is how to keep Trump engaged in the support of Ukraine," he adds.

Trump even pointed to two calls for him to receive the award on his Truth Social platform on Thursday after announcing the ceasefire negotiations were pushing forward.

“Anytime he is talking about solving seven wars, he is really sending a message: give me the Nobel,” one senior European diplomat based in Washington, D.C., told the writer.

Trump's work to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas has been recognized as commendable; however, experts also point to his pausing the attempts to end the war in Ukraine and pressuring Russia.

And the timing is notable, Blumenthal writes.

“Once he figured out that was too hard, we’re back to Gaza,” the diplomat told Blumenthal.

"In a delicious bit of irony, the Norwegian committee told Agence-France Presse that it had held its final meeting on Monday – two days before Trump announced the first phase of the peace deal on Truth Social," he writes.

"But amid the naked ambition behind Trump’s push for peace in Gaza, even those who have been highly critical of the war have hailed the deal as a major achievement."

'Concerning': Pope Leo XIV dishes rare criticism of Trump admin

Pope Leo XIV issued a rare comment, calling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's speech to military brass "concerning" and the Trump administration's “inhuman treatment” of immigrants and the death penalty hypocritical for people who call themselves "pro-life" for opposing abortion.

The American-born pope was responding to questions from reporters outside his Castel Gandolfo residence late Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.

Leo apparently shook his head in response to questions about Hegseth's speech, delivering an unusual statement, as he has mainly stayed out of politics and the news.

“This way of speaking is concerning, because it shows, every time, an increase of tension,” Leo told reporters in Italian. “This wording, like going from minister of defense to minister of war. Let’s hope it’s just a figure of speech. Of course, there you have a style of governance meaning to show strength, so as to pile up pressure. Let’s hope this works and that there isn’t war. One always needs to work toward peace.”

The pope also indicated his hope for peace and said the plan for Gaza is "realistic." He added that he is hopeful it will be "accepted."

Reporters also asked him about the Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich's decision to give Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) a lifetime achievement award for his dedication to immigration, which drew some backlash from other clergy leaders in the state who argued the senator's position on abortion should not be overlooked ahead of the honor.

Leo said he was “not terribly familiar with the particular case. He added that it is “very important to look at the overall work a senator has done during, if I am not mistaken, 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

'My God!' CNN analyst stunned by judge's 'jaw-dropping' rebuke of Trump

A federal judge on Tuesday issued a blistering rebuke of President Donald Trump and his administration's efforts to deport non-citizen professors and students who criticized the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.

Judge Bill Young, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan in Massachusetts, slammed Trump and the administration in a stunning 161-page opinion. He outlines how the White House's actions have not only chilled political expression but were meant to strike fear in non-citizens sharing their political beliefs.

"My God, I have rarely seen something as jaw-dropping as this from a judge," CNN's Katelyn Polantz reports. "He has been on the bench for quite a long time, so he's done a lot of this sort of work. This case, it's about chilling the ability of people to protest Israel or for Palestine on college campuses. And he writes about some of the circumstances that have taken place on college campuses where pro-Palestinian advocates have then been targeted by the administration, had visas revoked, even been arrested or jailed."

Young, in his detailed opinion, says the administration cannot do that, and, that non-citizens in the United States should have the same free speech protections as American citizens.

"That's one way to talk about this case. But this opinion is astonishing for a different reason," Polantz said. "It is a complete and utter broadside by this sitting federal judge against the president and what this administration has been doing, trying to just curtail the speech, the protest abilities, all kinds of activities by people who are not citizens of the United States in the U.S., currently."

At one point, the judge even points to his wife, and just what she has to say about Trump.

"One of the things that he says, he quotes his wife, says he doesn't discuss cases outside of chambers," Polantz said. "He quotes his wife about Donald Trump, saying he seems to be winning. He ignores everything and keeps bullying ahead."

But that's not all. The judge adds why this is problematic against the current backdrop of political division.

"The president himself approves truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech," she said. "And then he writes, I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided today that they will not stand up, fight for and defend our most precious Constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected."

The judge also included a photocopied postcard someone had written him — an unusual move in an opinion, Polantz said.

"Another unusual thing. This is where what I would call the mic drop," she said.

"I don't know if Judge Young would use that. He was appointed to the bench in 1985," she joked.

What he writes, though, at the top of this opinion, is that he clearly had his chambers photocopy a postcard that someone sent him in June.

In the postcard, it says "Trump has pardons and tanks. What do you have?"

"Before he even starts the opinion, Judge Young puts that at the top of the page, then says, 'Dear Mr. And Mrs. Anonymous"... I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, we the people of the United States, you and me, have our magnificent Constitution," Polantz said.

But how he signed it was also significant and fascinating, she said.

"Here's how that works out in a specific case, then writes this opinion, his ruling, and then at the end, as he signs it, he signs it 'William Young, judge of the United States,' not district of Massachusetts, Federal district judge. Judge of the United States. Noting that that's how his predecessor, judge in the lead up to civil of the Civil War, signed opinions and that he's doing that now in honor of all of his judicial colleagues standing with them. And he then puts a note at the end to the person who apparently sent him that threatening postcard says, 'thanks for writing. It shows you care. You should.'"

Polantz predicts the Trump administration will appeal his ruling, as they have others. But that's not what this judge aimed to do.

"And they are absolutely within their right to appeal a ruling of a federal district judge," she added. "But Judge Young is, I'm sure, that there are going to be a lot of people looking very closely at what Judge Young has written here. And then also done on the platform that he has."

'Trump is struggling': President's new fumble rekindles cognitive questions

President Donald Trump appeared to fumble during a joint news conference Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — where he announced a proposed ceasefire and peace plan for Gaza — and the internet quickly noticed.

"Time ago we had a historic phone call in the Oval Office with Prime Minister [Nawaf Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-] Thani, a great, great person, so we had a great talk and I was on the phone and Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] was talking to Prime Minister Al-Thani, of Qatar, was... they really had a heart-to-heart conversation, it was a great conversation, I thought," Trump said.

Social media users had quite a few initial thoughts on the president's demeanor, including mention of his previous attacks on former President Joe Biden, whom he often referred to as "sleepy Joe," and questions over whether Trump is mentally fit to serve in the executive office.

"Trump is struggling today," journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on X.

"Genuine question, does he not have a speech writer? I mean that sincerely is there no one assigned to write out a couple of paragraphs for him so he can at least sound like he has two brain cells to rub together?" Blogger Karen Mulreid wrote on X.

"That’s not just struggling. He’s losing his mind before everyone’s eyes," Ann Clark wrote on X.

"Jeez! Remember when Trump went after Biden and accused him of having dementia? When he spoke far clearer than this rambling mess," writer Don McGowan wrote on X.

"Good god this is story-hour-at-the-senior-center energy," writer Sean Colarossi said via X.

"Trump was slurring his words and sounds like he was struggling to think," Patsy Evans, Ph.D., wrote via Bluesky.