President Donald Trump first spontaneously unveiled a plan for the US to take over Gaza in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—just two hours before publicly announcing it
.
Two officials briefed on the discussion told Axios
this wasn’t on the original agenda. The day had started with plans to reinforce Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. But somewhere between the prepared notes and the Oval Office, Trump decided to go rogue.
“This can’t go on like this,” Trump reportedly said during the Tuesday meeting, referring to Gaza’s post-war devastation. But then he dropped the bombshell: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip… we will develop it.”
Staffers called it an “audible,” Axios reported, and the aftermath was seismic as the White House scrambled to clarify, walking back the most explosive part of Trump’s proposal by insisting any relocation of Palestinians would be “temporary,” despite Trump’s on-the-record suggestion they’d be moved out permanently.
“Trump didn’t tell Bibi where this idea came from,” an Israeli official told Axios, adding that Trump made it clear he’d be announcing the plan at their joint press conference.
After scribbling down his last-minute thoughts, Axios reported, which were hastily inserted into his official remarks, Trump shared his impromptu Gaza pitch with the world.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio revealed on Wednesday that he would run for office after going from prison to Mar-a-Lago in the space of just two weeks.
“It’s been a great two weeks, Greg,” he told Newsmax host Greg Kelly. “Two weeks ago I was in prison and just last night I was in Mar-a-Lago at the president’s house.”
“That is so amazing,” replied Kelly. “From prison to Mar-a-Lago, the most exclusive house in the world, possibly more exclusive than the White House.”
After the Newsmax host asked Tarrio what his next steps would be, he announced his intention to run for office.
“Last time I was on, I told you that I was gonna take some time, and I was going to really think about what I was going to do,” said Tarrio. “And I think my future is in politics. I think I’m gonna take a serious look at running for office at some point in 2026 or 2028, and I believe that there is a path for that because it is my passion.”
He continued, “I wanted to take some time to really think about it and I think I’ve made up my mind. I think that I’m going to go ahead and push, and again, there’s a lot of things that need to be aligned for that to happen, so I am gonna take my time with picking what office specifically, what district. Is it gonna be local? Is it gonna be at a federal level? I don’t know, but I will tell you that I have made a decision.”
Tarrio was sentenced
to 22 years in prison in September 2023 after being convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, even though he was not present at the Capitol that day.
Tarrio’s sentence was cut short last month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order issuing
pardons and commutations to everyone convicted of an offense related to January 6.
Bill Gates, billionaire philanthropist, defended the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and doubled down on his criticism of Elon Musk’s political stance and efforts to dismantle the agency.
Musk, leading President Donald Trump’s federal cost-cutting initiative, targeted USAID
, resulting in office closures over the weekend and leaving up to a thousand contractors laid off or furloughed.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, Gates was asked about Musk’s actions and his branding of USAID as “evil” and a “criminal organization.”
Gates, whose foundation is one of the largest in the world, shot back by highlighting the agency’s life-saving work.
“USAID plays a super important role… it’s work that saves millions of lives and helps strengthen relationships for the United States,” Gates said.
He elaborated: “There were 48 hours where drug disbursement was shut down, and then that was reversed. And now the challenge is that the employees who manage that work aren’t being let into the office. So we’re a bit up in the air. When I saw President Trump just after Christmas, I emphasized the value of these HIV programs, the fact that I support them, and that we work hard to ensure the money is well spent. That was a strong message I gave him. I’m hopeful he’ll see both the moral and strategic value in keeping this strong.”
Cooper then pressed Gates about the future of PEPFAR, the HIV relief program launched under former President George W. Bush, which is also under threat.
“There were 48 hours where drug disbursement was shut down, and then that was reversed,” Gates reiterated.
When asked what would happen if PEPFAR were shut down, Gates warned: “You’d have up to 10 million deaths if it was stopped abruptly. I thought the argument would be about whether we could cut it by 10 percent over the next several years. And, look, there’s a lot of demands on the budget.”
Cooper then brought up Gates’ previous comments in the Financial Times, where he criticized Musk’s recent “populist stirring” as “insane shit.”
While acknowledging Musk’s intelligence, Gates maintained his critique.
“Just the idea of him supporting very right-wing parties—I’m surprised by that,” Gates said. “I’m very careful to say Elon’s super smart. His private-sector work is fantastic. But I’m surprised by the number of things he voices opinions on. I’ve always had friends around me who make sure I don’t spout off on too many things at the same time.”
Gates concluded by addressing Musk’s broader push for government cuts: “The basic idea that we should review almost every department and that if you were really smart about using technology or updating the goals, you could save 10% here, 10% there—which adds up to a lot—I don’t think that’s a mistake. But going in very quickly and saying that all these people run a criminal organization—that’s not quite as subtle as you’d hope to see.”
Fox News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram questioned Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday about the outsized role Elon Musk is playing in the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump tapped Musk to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which was billed as a cost-cutting advisory commission. Instead, Musk has been granted unprecedented access to several government agencies, including the Treasury, the Department of Education, the United States Agency for International Development, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has all but closed down
USAID and ceased distribution of its funds, which were appropriated by Congress. USAID’s website is now simply a message
explaining that staff have been placed on leave.
During Wednesday’s weekly press conference with House Republicans – who have praised Musk – Pergram asked Johnson how the Republican-controlled Congress can allow Musk to arrogate powers to himself that the Constitution reserves to Congress. He also asked the speaker about Trump’s pledge to shutter the Department of Education
, which was created by Congress:
PERGRAM: Is there an inconsistency by Republicans on one hand, where we’ve heard for years now, “All we want [is] to not have unelected bureaucrats in charge of things downtown,” and yet ceding Article I powers to the executive branch under Elon Musk?
Is there not an inconsistency about calling for the elimination of the Department of Education? And yet we’ve heard from some of your colleagues here this morning, “We don’t want women to be playing sports with men.” And aren’t you ceding back that power, then, as it pertains to education if you eliminate the Department of Education?
JOHNSON: No. Look, I’ve gotta challenge the premise of the question, Chad. You know me. I’m a fierce advocate and defender of Article I. I mean, look, we are the legislative branch. There’s a reason the Founding Fathers put the Congress, the legislative branch, as the first article in the Constitution. And we’re gonna vigorously defend that. But what’s happening right now, I think there’s a gross overreaction in the media to what is happening. The executive branch of government in our system has the right to evaluate how executive branch agencies are operating and to ensure that not only the intent of Congress in funding mechanisms, but also the stewardship of precious American taxpayer dollars is being handled well.
The speaker added that he does not view the actions of Trump and Musk as a threat to Congress’s powers “at all.”
Civil servants at the agencies Musk has meddled in have reported being shut out of their computer systems
and prohibited from entering their workplaces. Democrats have demanded Trump rein in Musk, who has not been transparent about his activities at the agencies – particularly the Treasury Department, where he and his young staffers have access to Americans’ sensitive information
, including Social Security numbers and bank account information.
On Monday, it was reported
that associates of Musk had installed a server at the Office of Personnel Management, allowing them to control a massive federal database.
CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig blasted Attorney General Pam Bondi hours after she took office on Wednesday.
Bondi
, the former attorney general of Florida, is a longtime Trump ally whose first order of business upon taking office was re-litigating President Donald Trump’s past legal woes. Trump and his supporters are still sour over the two federal prosecutions against him, which have since been dropped. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith prosecuted Trump in two separate cases for retaining government documents after leaving office, as well as trying to overturn the 2020 election. The latter effort culminated in the 2021 Capitol riot.
Upon Bondi’s swearing in on Wednesday, Trump said, “I know I’m supposed to say she’s gonna be totally impartial with respect to Democrats, and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be. I’m not sure if there’s a possibility of totally. But she’s gonna be as total as you can get.”
Bondi issued several directives after taking office, including one ordering
an investigation into Smith and his prosecutions of Trump.
Later on CNN’s The Source, Honig took umbrage at Bondi’s action:
The thing that jumped out to me today… is essentially Pam Bondi’s first act in office is to order an investigation of January 6th and the classified documents prosecution of Donald Trump.
That is an outrageous thing to do on your first day. If you’re trying to restore DOJ’s equilibrium and establish, “this as a nonpolitical place,” that is an overtly political quest. And by the way, let me spoil the secret and tell you how it’s gonna come out. Someday, six, eight, 10 months from now, we’re gonna get a report and they’re gonna say, “Those prosecutions of Donald Trump were wildly corrupt and political and improper.” It won’t come out any other way.
Honig noted that some of the top brass now at the DOJ represented Trump as lawyers in the private sector.
“They should leave well alone,” he added. “And I do not think it’s good for morale or for the independence of DOJ for Pam Bondi to come in on day one and order that.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gave President Donald Trump a “golden pager” this week after using similar devices to assassinate his enemies in Lebanon.
According to Israeli media
, Netanyahu presented Trump with both a golden and regular pager during their meeting on Tuesday, in commemoration of a September 2024 operation that saw Israeli forces assassinate 42 people and injure thousands of others in Lebanon through the detonation of explosive pagers.
Trump reportedly responded to the gifts by saying, “That was a great operation,” and gave Netanyahu a photo of the two of them together, signed, “To Bibi, a great leader,” in return.
Considering Israel used pagers to assassinate members of the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, it is unclear how the devices got past Secret Service and into Trump’s possession.
During a press conference with Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump suggested
that the United States could take possession of Gaza and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after ethnically cleansing the native Palestinians.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land [Gaza], developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area,” he said. “We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal, and I don’t wanna be cute, I don’t wanna be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Netanyahu responded
, “I mention again tonight our three goals, and our third goal is to make sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again. President Trump is taking it to a much higher level. He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so many attacks against us, so many trials and so many tribulations.”
He continued, “He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this. We’re talking about it, he’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”
President Donald Trump’s drastic personnel moves amount to “highly illegal” activity, according to New York University law professor Ryan Goodman.
Trump adviser Elon Musk has been granted unprecedented access to meddle with various government agencies, including the U.S. Treasury, the General Services Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management. He has taken particular interest and glee in all but shuttering the United States Agency for International Development, whose website was taken down and replaced with a message
stating that staffers have been placed on administrative leave. Additionally, Musk has offered scores of federal employees a “buyout
” to get them to leave their jobs.
The president has gone so far as to fire certain federal employees, including those at the Department of Justice involved
in his ill-fated prosecutions.
Goodman appeared on Wednesday’s OutFront on CNN, where Erin Burnett asked him about the legality of the moves.
“USAID, which we were just talking about extensively, Department of Education,” Burnett said. “Now they’re trying to dismantle it cuts at [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], National Weather Service, CIA, FBI. Elon Musk, currently the driving force behind that. And even Speaker Johnson, it appears, says he doesn’t know what is happening. Is it legal?”
Burnett’s guest replied that not only is what Musk doing illegal, but members of the administration are most certainly aware of that:
There are a couple of things that I think stand out to me as highly illegal. So, one is actually also something going on in the Justice Department when you said firing people. The purging of the FBI career servants, public servants, and DOJ public servants is a violation of the civil servants statutes. I think they even know it. And [Attorney General] Pam Bondi coming in and saying, I’m going to effectuate the weaponization executive order. That’s what it’s all about.
So, I think that’s a very serious problem. And then eliminating some of these agencies – USAID, DOE – you can’t do that as a president. That would mean we have like, a king.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) former chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti announced his intention to run against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday.
“I’ve got some news: I’ve decided to run against Nancy Pelosi to represent San Francisco in Congress,” announced
Chakrabarti on social media. “I know some of you might be surprised that Speaker Emeritus Pelosi is running again, but she is — for her 21st term!”
He continued:
Watching Trump and Elon freely unleash chaos in their illegal seizure of government, it’s become clear to me that the Democratic Party needs new leadership. I don’t understand how DC’s Democratic leaders are so paralyzed and unprepared for this moment after living through President Trump’s first term — and after Trump and Elon warned us exactly what they planned to do.
I respect what Nancy Pelosi has accomplished in her career, but we are living in a totally different America than the one she knew when she entered politics 45 years ago. In an interview with Ezra Klein after Trump’s victory, Pelosi said the Democrats don’t need to change. I disagree. When Democrats were about to appoint their star communicator — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — to chair the powerful Oversight committee to hold Trump and his cronies accountable, Pelosi personally intervened to block it.
When Nancy Pelosi was first elected to Congress, you could buy a home on a single income. A summer job could pay for college. Republicans believed in climate change and respected election results. Now, the things that defined the American Dream — being able to afford health care, education, a home, and raise a family — are impossible for most people. And the Republican Party is overtly conspiratorial and anti-democracy. The Democratic Party needs to stop acting like it’s competing against a normal political party that plays by the rules, and it needs a bold vision for how to raise living standards, quality of life and security for all Americans. America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face.
Chakrabarti concluded, “I know it might seem it’s a little early to start running. But the fact is, it’s almost impossible to defeat incumbents in our system — even at a time when both Congress and the Democratic Party stand at record-low approval ratings. Winning this campaign will require months of organizing — online and on the street — to connect with every single voter in San Francisco. I’m excited for the work.”
Chakrabarti co-founded the progressive political PAC Justice Democrats in 2017, alongside The Young Turks co-creator Cenk Uygur, political commentator Kyle Kulinski, and former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign senior adviser Zack Exley.
Justice Democrats put up Ocasio-Cortez as a candidate for Congress in New York – which Chakrabarti led as campaign manager – and following her victory, he was appointed her chief of staff. Chakrabarti resigned as chief of staff in 2019.
Pelosi has served in Congress since 1987. Chakrabarti – who is 39 – was less than two years old when Pelosi
first became a U.S. representative from California.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday that she was concerned about Elon Musk unilaterally gutting USAID and seizing control over the Treasury Department’s payment system.
“There’s no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate,” Collins told reporters. “I think a lot of it is going to end up in court.”
“I am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose,” she added. Collins, the last Republican senator from New England, is also the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and has oversight over the spending that Musk has now seemed to wrangle control over.
Politico reported
on Collins’s
last interaction with Musk while covering her comments, noting:
After the only known one-on-one meeting between Collins and Musk on Capitol Hill late last year, she had said she was “very impressed with his energy and dedication.”
Since that time, Musk has helped orchestrate a de facto shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development and gained access to the Treasury Department system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments.
Collins also repeated her unease Wednesday that the White House is undermining Congressional spending power.
Collins also slammed Trump’s freeze of all federal grants last week, which followed a memo from the Office of Management and Budget. The memo was later rescinded after an outcry and following Medicaid portals across the country being shuttered.
Collins slammed the move as “far too sweeping” and said it would have “an adverse effect on the delivery of services and programs.” However, Collins still plans to vote to confirm Russ Vought, the Project 2025 contributor, to lead the OMB – as he did at the end of Trump’s last administration.
UnitedHealth Group Inc., the parent company of the UnitedHealthcare company whose CEO was shot and killed
last December, has hired a law firm known for high-profile defamation litigation to represent it in demanding a doctor retract social media posts accusing the insurer of denying coverage.
Brian Thompson’s assassination in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024 has been described by authorities as a premeditated and targeted attack
. Luigi Mangione, who has been charged with Thompson’s murder, had in his possession
a ghost gun and suppressor and a manifesto
that railed
against the health insurance industry when he was arrested. In the wake of Thompson’s killing, many Americans posted their grievances about the country’s health insurance system online.
Recently, Dr. Elisabeth Potter
, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Austin, Texas, published several posts on her Instagram and other social media accounts describing how UHC denied an overnight stay for her patient after a breast reconstruction surgery after cancer treatment.
“I had to scrub out mid-surgery to call United, only to find that the person on the line didn’t even have access to the patient’s full medical information, despite the procedure already being pre-approved,” said Potter said in the first video about this patient’s case. (In a follow-up post
, she noted that there was a second surgeon in the operating room with the patient while she left to make the phone call.)
“Monitoring overnight is essential for these cases, yet insurance requires us to fight for what should be standard care,” wrote
Potter in a caption to a video a few days later.
According to Potter, UHC called her
to complain about her posts and left a message. She attempted to call back
but was left on hold and never able to reach the right person.
UHC’s next communication, the doctor says, was in the form of a demand letter from the Clare Locke law firm, which markets itself as “the leading law firm in the United States.” Among its notable cases, Clare Locke represented Dominion Voting Systems in obtaining a nearly $800 million settlement
against Fox News over claims made on its programs about the 2020 election.
In the letter, which Potter posted
, the law firm accused the doctor of making an error in her patient orders and of allowing “threatening, harassing, and intimidating comments” on her social media posts that were directed at UHC.
The demand letter went on to demand that Potter “correct the record” by deleting her posts, issuing a public apology to UHC, contacting any media that had covered her posts to retract her claims, and to condemn “the threats of violence aimed at our client resulting from your posts.”
Potter was undeterred. In an Instagram video
posted Feb. 3, the doctor acknowledged she found the demand letter “a bit intimidating” but vowed, “I’m not going to be silenced by threats when it comes to speaking out for my patients.”
She added that “even worse” was how UHC had denied her patient’s overnight stay:
Staying overnight after major surgery isn’t optional—it’s medically necessary. But UnitedHealthcare decided they know better than the doctors caring for the patient.
When they called me while I was operating, I knew that if I didn’t step out and respond immediately, they might deny her stay—leaving her with a massive bill. So, with another surgeon in the OR, I scrubbed out and called them back. But after all of that? They denied her stay anyway.
And instead of fixing their broken system, they sent me a legal threat for speaking out…
Denying an overnight stay that a doctor orders is dangerous. The doctor caring for the patient should be able to make these decisions without delay, pressure, or harassment.
If I don’t speak up, I lose—my integrity, my voice, and the opportunity to make a difference. And while it’s intimidating to receive a letter like this from a company as powerful as UnitedHealthcare, I know where I stand.
“Let me be clear: I stand by everything I said,” Potter declared. “I told the truth. I was honest about what’s happening in our healthcare system. And I will not be silenced by legal threats when it comes to advocating for my patients and my ability to care for them.”
“My words were true and this situation was absurd,” Potter wrote in her follow-up post that shared the full letter from Clare Locke, adamant that the overnight stay was necessary for “medical reasons” and it was “not an error on my part” to request it.
“The gaslighting and harassment in the letter which United sent me has not worked to do anything other than strengthen my resolve,” she concluded. “I will continue to speak honestly, clearly and plainly about the state of healthcare in the United States of America.”