President Donald Trump's peace plan for the war between Israel and Hamas is being met with "extreme skepticism" abroad, a foreign analyst revealed on Tuesday.
Jane Kinninmont, CEO at the United Nations Association, discussed Trump's peace plan during an interview on Times Radio. The plan involves creating an international peacekeeping commission headed by Trump and a complete overhaul of the Palestinian Authority, the governing body of Palestine.
She argued that while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some Arab leaders have expressed support for Trump's "leadership" on the issue, there is still a "big divide" that needs to be crossed.
"There's certainly a lot that needs to be treated with extreme skepticism, but emphasizing that nearly the whole world does want to see an end to these daily killings, to the famine, and they want to see the hostages freed, and we need to find a way to get there," Kinninmont said.
Kinninmont added that one of the hang-ups for foreign leaders is whether the peace deal has teeth to protect a Palestinian state in a two-state solution scenario.
"Although we have seen Arab leaders come out in some numbers today to welcome the plan, if you look at what they have said carefully with a diplomat's eye to what is said and not said, they express their support for his leadership and his efforts for peace, but they also say they're ready to work with him on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a path to a two-state solution," Kinninmont said.
"That is very different from Netanyahu's reading of the plan, which is that it doesn't require that full Israeli withdrawal for quite a long time and that for him there will never be a Palestinian state," she continued. "So there's still a very big divide to be bridged."
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) said that she marched into the office to talk to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday and tried to reason with him about averting a government shutdown, but it became clear to her that he didn't care.
"I implored the Speaker that he should have brought his members here so that if there were a chance to solve this without shutting the government down, we would have been able to do that. But in the absence of that, by him sending everybody home or on vacation, he effectively created a shutdown," Dean told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace about her conversation with Johnson.
She noted that members also tried to introduce legislation during the pro-forma session this morning, but the few Republicans in the chamber ensured that effort was also shut down.
"So, Republicans have shut this down," Dean said of the party that controls the House, Senate and White House.
"But much more importantly, Nicolle, what I said to him is, you owe the American people honesty. He tried to argue to me, this is a clean [continuing resolution]. Number one, my constituents don't care about a CR. They wonder why we are trying to do a band-aid, temporary stopgap government spending bills."
She said that people also shouldn't be fooled by the idea that the bill is "clean," as in the bill does nothing more than raise the debt ceiling. In fact, the bill has additional cuts to the government, particularly to Medicare and Medicaid, along with the Affordable Care Act subsidies.
"Sadly,do you know what the Speakersaid?" Dean recalled. "He was happy people were going to be losing their health care. He thought they need to go off the rolls of Medicaid."
She told Wallace that she said it isn't something any person should wish for and that his constituents in Louisiana would be impacted.
Dean also pointed out the speech that Trump gave before the top military brass on Tuesday morning.
"He's not well," she recalled telling Johnson. The speaker said he hadn't watched Trump's speech.
In an attack on Democrats over the shutdown set to begin at midnight Wednesday, President Donald Trump warned that he will lay off a number of federal workers — and apparently they'll all be Democrats.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, Trump was asked by a reporter why he needed to do layoffs during the shutdown when the "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE, had been making cuts across the whole of government.
"Well, the Democrats want to shut it down, so when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So, we'll be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected and they're Democrats. They're going to be Democrats," said Trump.
Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff and communications director for Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), flagged Trump's response on X.
"A great question and apart from 'you have to do layoffs,' which as we all know is not true, a revealing answer from Trump: 'We will be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected… they’re going to be Democrats.'"
People who will not be working during the shutdown will be furloughed, which is a temporary pause in their paid employment. A layoff refers to the termination of an employee's employment altogether. In past decades, shutdowns have not resulted in layoffs.
The House, Senate and White House are all controlled by Republicans, and the GOP could pass an increase to the debt ceiling.
Still, Trump went on to claim the United States couldn't pay for healthcare for undocumented people, which is not among the requests from Democrats, who have asked that the Medicare cuts be restored. They also want to see that subsidies given to people for healthcare through the Affordable Care Act are also renewed. The healthcare expenses will be passed on to taxpayers starting Wednesday.
Trump then rambled that Democrats lost an election because they want everyone to be transgender.
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 onthe bench for quite a long time,so he's done a lot of this sortof work. This case, it's aboutchilling the ability of peopleto protest Israel or for Palestine on college campuses.And he writes about some of thecircumstances that have takenplace on college campuses wherepro-Palestinian advocates havethen been targeted by theadministration, had visasrevoked, even been arrested orjailed."
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 aboutthis case. But this opinion isastonishing for a differentreason," Polantz said. "It is a complete andutter broadside by this sittingfederal judge against thepresident and what thisadministration has been doing,trying to just curtail thespeech, the protest abilities,all kinds of activities bypeople who are not citizens ofthe 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 thethings that he says, he quoteshis wife, says he doesn't discusscases outside of chambers," Polantz said. "Hequotes his wife about Donald Trump, saying he seems to bewinning. He ignores everythingand keeps bullying ahead."
But that's not all. The judge adds why this is problematic against the current backdrop of political division.
"Thepresident himself approves trulyscandalous and unconstitutionalsuppression of free speech," she said. "Andthen he writes, I fear President Trump believes the Americanpeople are so divided today thatthey will not stand up, fightfor and defend our most precious Constitutional values so long asthey are lulled into thinkingtheir own personal interests arenot 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."
A proposed class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court states that a U.S. citizen has been illegally detained twice during sweeps targeting Latino construction workers in Alabama — and that federal agents refused to accept his documentation.
The suit names several Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan, the scandal-plagued former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief currently serving as President Donald Trump's "border czar."
According to Bloomberg News, the litigation "was brought on behalf of Leonardo Garcia Venegas, an American-born construction worker who claimed he’s been detained twice this year during workplace raids. During one incident, Garcia Venegas alleged that officers initially dismissed his identification document as 'fake' and kept him in handcuffs for more than an hour" — even though the document in question was a "STAR ID" state driver's license, which cannot be obtained by non-citizens.
"The unlawful raids and detentions that Leo experienced were no accident," stated the suit. "The officers were enforcing three policies adopted by the Department of Homeland Security that grant federal immigration officers sweeping search and seizure powers that violate the Fourth Amendment and exceed officers’ statutory and regulatory powers. The policies authorize immigration officers to (1) raid the non-public areas of private construction sites without consent or a warrant, (2) preemptively detain workers on those sites without reasonable suspicion that they are undocumented, and (3) continue detaining those workers even after they have produced evidence of their citizenship or lawful presence."
Furthermore, stated the suit, "The officers rarely (if ever) have reasonable suspicion to suspect that the people working on or managing a particular construction site are violating immigration laws. Instead, DHS authorizes these armed raids based on the general assumption that certain groups of people in the industry, including Latinos, are likely illegal immigrants."
This comes after the Supreme Court summarily ruled through an emergency "shadow docket" decision last month that federal agents in California can engage in overt racial profiling, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh explicitly stating as justification that any U.S. citizens caught up in such profiling could simply sue the arresting officers if they're unlawfully assaulted.
A special operations leader who led a key battle in the Iraq War called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's meeting Tuesday among top military brass an "insane insult" to senior officers responsible for complex military operations.
“I mean, first of all, that’s like an insane insult to his senior officers, who all made their bones fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Elliot Ackerman, who led Marines in the second battle of Fallujah, told The New York Times. “Those guys have got a lot more dust on their boots than he does.”
Hegseth — who stood in front of an American flag and wore an American flag belt buckle similar to General Patton in the 1970 film "Patton" — served 12 months in Iraq and is a former major in the Army National Guard, The Times reports. His vision of the military is based on this experience, and "much of his address focused on the kinds of issues he would have dealt with as a young platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq or as a company commander in the Guard."
He also decried "the woke" and talked about grooming, saying "no more beards, long hair, superficial, individual expression."
“We’re going to cut our hair, shave, shave our beards and adhere to standards," Hegseth said.
Hegseth also said women would be held to the "highest male standard" for serving in combat roles. And while women can still serve in combat roles, it harkens to World War II-era policies when women didn't fight in war.
“If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it,” Hegseth said.
He implied that physical strength should be a top priority among the ranking military leaders, and appeared to suggest that the U.S. struggles to win wars.
“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.”
He compared himself and his own physical abilities to the other public servants.
“If the secretary of war can do regular, hard P.T., so can every member of our joint force," he said, speaking of himself.
Then, he told them what he expected, while the military officials sat silent.
“You are hereby liberated to be an apolitical, hard-charging, no-nonsense, constitutional leader that you joined the military to be,” he said.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration is closing in on a deal with Harvard University that would require the Ivy League university to pay $500 million towards opening and operating trade schools focusing on artificial intelligence.
Trump took questions from reportersduring a news conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday after signing an executive order concerning the use of AI in pediatric cancer cases. He was asked about the latest negotiations between the White House and Harvard regarding accessing federal grant funding. The Trump administration moved to withhold federal funding to the university earlier this year because of Harvard's campus antisemitism policies, a move that multiple federal judges have ruled was illegal.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the White House was considering referring Harvard for "debarment" proceedings, which would disqualify the university from receiving federal funding.
"We're in the process, and we're getting very close," Trump said. "Linda [McMahon] is finishing up the final details. They'd be paying about $500 million, and they'll be operating trade schools. They're going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things. Engines. Lots of things."
Trump has previously said he wants Harvard to pay a $500 million fine to restore more than $2.2 billion in funding that was previously approved but never paid.
"This would be a giant series of trade schools that would be operated by Harvard," Trump said of his plan. "We're very close to that. Finalizing. Haven't done it yet. But they would put up $500 million, and interest and everything from that account would go to the trade school. It's a big investment, done by very smart people. And then their sins are forgiven."
Former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols had some harsh words on MSNBC for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's speech to generals at Quantico — and what it reveals about his dark priorities for the use of military force.
"What I was concerned about, what I thought about when Pete Hegseth was giving that speech, was not so much the woke culture war stuff, which I expect," said anchor Katy Tur. "It's the consequences of trying to go after the woke culture war. And what gets wrapped up in that. The military has had a problem with sexual assault. It's been a longstanding problem, and one that leaders have tried to address. When he's talking about not derailing careers, not, you know, listening to the complainers, I really — I wondered, does that send a message to women, if you're assaulted, no one wants to hear it?"
"It sends a message to everybody," said Nichols. "It says, if your leader is a toxic jerk whose command is a mess and you're trying to complain to the IG or to warn your superiors that you have a leader who's somehow off the rails and behaving inappropriately, because this is just — this is about more than just women. I mean, basically, Hegseth said, if you are a toxic leader, don't worry, I've got your back."
"I think part of that is because the one person Pete Hegseth is tired of people smearing in his mind is Pete Hegseth, because the building keeps leaking about what a hot mess Pete Hegseth's Pentagon is," Nichols continued. "This is, I think, that the point of putting all those people in a room was to generate video clips of bold, tough, alpha guy Pete Hegseth reading the riot act to all of these admirals and generals, many of whom, as I've pointed out many times, were officers when Pete Hegseth was still in high school. And to say, you know, no more wokeism, no more complaining. We don't want to hear anything from, you know, the women. We don't want to hear anything about bad leaders."
"And by the way, in case people are wondering about the beard issue, the, you know, the men can't have beards because of a shaving exception for a medical condition that falls heavily on Black men. The targets of all of this were very clear. It was that Pete Hegseth wants it to be, you know, the Defense Department to be a club, a kind of a frat, and everybody else isn't too far for — for soldiers who see wrongdoing out there on the battlefield, soldiers who are worried that their fellow soldiers are going too far and maybe crossing a line into committing a war crime."
At least one journalist was hospitalized after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen cursing out, grabbing and shoving reporters on a public elevator.
According to amNewYork, ICE agents were apprehending a suspected immigrant inside the elevator at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday when the incident occurred.
Dean Moses, the police bureau chief of amNewYork, was reportedly grabbed by agents as he attempted to photograph them.
According to Moses, ICE agents followed a woman into an elevator on the 12th floor of the building.
"A couple of seconds after she goes into the elevator, two ICE agents go in after her," he recalled. "They never identified themselves, they didn't ask for her papers or her ID."
"I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me, 'Get the f–k out," he continued. "Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out."
Another ICE agent shoved Associated Press freelancer Olga Fedorova to the floor. L. Vural Elibol of the Anadolu Agency was seriously injured after hitting the back of his head on the floor, amNewYork reported.
"He was semiconscious, but he didn't move from the position for 35 to 40 minutes," Moses remarked.
Elibol was taken to a hospital after the Department of Homeland Security called for medical assistance. He was expected to recover.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander noted that the attack resembled his arrest at the same facility in June.
"Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on [a] stretcher," he explained in a post on X. "Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy."
ICE later claimed the journalists were "obstructing operations."
Longtime Pentagon reporter Helene Cooper said that she can't find any military officials who attended the meeting in Virginia with President Donald Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth and liked what they heard.
"I have yet to find a single military official who was in the audience today who thought that this was a good presentation," she told MSNBC on Tuesday afternoon.
"All I've had from them so far, from the people I've talked to, is a combination of disbelief that some of them were made to fly from, some of them, Asia, from all over the world ... all the way to Quanico to listen to the same familiar type of culture war complaints that we've been having since Trump was reelected," she added, calling Trump's remarks a "campaign-style stump speech."
"Nothing that was said today could not have been put in an email or in a directive. So there's that, to begin with. There's also the fact that so much of this was partisan, and this is a military that is supposed to present itself as nonpartisan. So you didn't hear the kind of cheering that we usually get, because President Trump is used to playing for the type of crowds that favor him," Cooper explained. "And so he's not very used to performing in front of an audience that's just giving, looking back stone-faced. But that's what you were getting from these generals."
The other thing she noted is that she's gotten "so many emails from women in the military" who are seeing this as a message "that they are not welcome."
Hegseth has opposed having women in combat roles.
“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,” Hegseth told a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan on Nov. 7, 2024.
Some top Republican senators are asking the White House to roll back its plans to withhold funding for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, which oversees watchdogs across executive branch agencies.
Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter Monday to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought that said they were “urgently request[ing] an explanation” of the move, which they warned would “disrupt numerous important oversight functions," but the Trump administration official was unlikely to change course, reported The Washington Post.
“Inspectors general are meant to be impartial watchdogs identifying waste and corruption on behalf of the American people,” said an OMB spokesperson in a statement. “Unfortunately, they have become corrupt, partisan, and in some cases, have lied to the public. The American people will no longer be funding this corruption.”
Collins has for months challenged the administration's clawback of congressionally approved funding. Grassley has long been a champion of federal whistleblower protections, and the duo notified OMB that “effectively defunding” the group was “contrary to congressional intent.”
The CIGIE notified lawmakers over the weekend that OMB intended to withhold funding for the fiscal year that begins Wednesday, which would force the agency to stop its statutorily mandated functions and furlough its employees.
“If unfunded, Oversight.gov and 28 supported OIG websites will be disrupted on October 1,” said the Council’s acting chair, Tammy Hull. “Whistleblowers will likely not be able to file anonymous complaints online with these OIGs. Additionally, individual efforts by each OIG to re-launch their own legally required site will be incredibly inefficient and costly to the government.”
The council was established by Congress in 2008 and spans across the federal government, and its oversight.gov website serves as a clearinghouse for whistleblowers to submit complaints to inspectors general.
OMB's move is part of the Trump administration's broader effort to curtail the power of independent inspectors general after President Donald Trump fired more than a dozen of them in the first week of his second term.
A CNN anchor warned Tuesday that "the economy is flashing some troubling signals" as a looming government shutdown approaches and questions over upcoming jobs reports.
"The economy is flashing some troubling signals," CNN anchor Brianna Keilar told viewers. "Consumerconfidence is at a five-monthlow, due in part to a slowinglabor market. And with all eyeson jobs data, there's alingering question: will thismonth's job report come outthis Friday, as it routinelydoes? And that's because if thegovernment shuts down, thereport could be delayed."
"The mood on Main Street remains pretty gloomy," CNN reporter Matt Egan reports.
In September, consumer confidence dropped by another 4% to a reading of just above 94.
"So forsome context, that is the lowestsince April, the month whenfinancial markets were goinghaywire as investors freaked outover the president's tariffplans, consumer confidence issignificantly lower than back in January, when the presidentstarted his second term," he said.
The downward trend is also showing a significant change among consumers.
"If you look backat this point in the calendar ofthe president's first term backin September of 2017, consumerconfidence was clearly muchhigher. So why are peoplefeeling down on this economy?Well, the consumer confidencereport came up with a couple ofdifferent readings that wereconcerning, including presentsituation, how people arefeeling about the currentsituation on the ground thatfell significantly, also, howpeople are feeling about theirfamily finances, in particular,how they're feeling about theircurrent financial situation thatfell sharply, as well as howavailable consumers believe jobsare right," Egan said.
Disappointing job reports over the last few months have also reflected how people feel about the economy. These factors can raise a concern, he added.
"Why do we careabout consumer confidence?Because this economy is drivenby consumer spending, and theworst people are feeling, theless likely they are to go outto eat, go buy a car or take avacation. So that's why we gotto pay very close attention tothese low consumer confidencenumbers," Egan said.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were raked over the coals by a former GOP campaign advisor after their appearance at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, for giving aid and comfort to enemies of the United States.
In a scorching take-down of the appearance by the two before hundreds of high-ranking military personnel who were lectured and put on notice about what will be expected of them going forward, Reed Galen, who served on Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, blew up when asked about what he had just witnessed.
Asked by MSNBC host Chris Jansing how the speeches would be remembered, Galen quickly exclaimed, “Let me say a couple things here first, Chris. One, the only thing worse than Zippy the Pinhead [Hegseth] getting up there and doing what he did was having the orange pumpkin [Trump] get up and do what he did.”
"Now, let me just say this, like for Pete Hegseth, right? Now, look, I'd be as skinny as he was if I lived on a steady diet of Zyn pouches and Jack Daniels. But like, the idea that he goes around explaining why it's not okay for people to be fat in the military while the president of the United States waddles around the West Wing, you know, talking about people's signatures is ridiculous.”
“And I mean, you know, let's expand the aperture out here, Chris,” he added. “Like our opponents, our adversaries are watching this, and they're laughing —they're laughing at us. These are two, three, four-star, one-star flag officers. These are men and women who have dedicated their careers and their lives to serving our country. Many of them have probably served in combat. Now they have to sit here and have these two idiots tell them, one, what it is they need to do, and two, talk about autopen?”
“I mean, it's a ridiculous, ridiculous expression of political authority,” he continued. “And I'll tell you what. As Americans, we should feel sorry for the men and women in uniform that they have to take orders from these two.”
