House Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats have been left “embarrassed” by Rep. Al Green’s behavior after the House voted Thursday to censure the Texas congressman for disrupting President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress.
Johnson joined “America’s Newsroom” after the vote to punish the lawmaker for his “disgusting” behavior during Trump’s speech to the House chamber.
“This is a really sad day for our institution,” Johnson told Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino. “What Representative Al Green did in the midst of the president’s speech as our honored guest to the chamber was disrupted. He did it intentionally, as everyone saw. I gave him plenty of warnings and he refused. It was a deliberate action. It needed to be met with swift punishment. That’s the tradition of this place to maintain decorum, and so that’s what we just did.”
“There’s a deep and rich tradition here, and it is violated,” he continued. “To our understanding and our review of history, that was the first time that any member of Congress has ever had to be removed in the middle of a presidential address, and it’s shameful.”
There had been multiple resolutions circulating among House Republicans to censure Green after the 77-year-old Democrat was removed from Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night for repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president’s speech.
He shouted, “You have no mandate!,” at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.
Johnson had Green removed by the U.S. sergeant-at-arms.
Green remained defiant when he stopped to speak with the White House press pool on the first floor of the U.S. Capitol after being thrown out of the second floor House chamber, where Trump was speaking.
“I’m willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me. I didn’t say to anyone, ‘don’t punish me.’ I’ve said I’ll accept the punishment,” Green said, according to the White House press pool report. “But it’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.”
The censure vote passed on a bipartisan basis Thursday with 10 Democrats voting to censure Green alongside Republicans.
Before the formal censure could be read out, however, Democrats upended proceedings by gathering with the Green and singing “We shall overcome.” Johnson was forced to call the House into a recess after failing multiple times to quell the protest.
“They’re embarrassed by what happened,” Johnson said. “Many of their colleagues, as you know, were holding up signs on the floor and trying to disrupt in other ways. But the leadership, Hakeem Jeffries, to his credit, he’s the leader on the Democrat side in the House. He admonished his colleagues before the event and asked them to maintain decorum.”
“We have to do that as leaders, and every member should be committed to that as well,” he continued. “It brings shame on the institution. It brought shame on them as individuals and on their party. And it’s just disgusting to me… I take no pleasure in this.”
Democrats have received a swarm of backlash for what the White House called “childish” behavior from members of the party during Trump’s historic address.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the “shameful” conduct during a press briefing on Wednesday, noting many did not applaud a child cancer survivor or acknowledge mothers of children brutally murdered by illegal immigrants.
“Last night was a very clarifying moment for our country,” Leavitt said. “The Democrats exposed themselves as the party of insanity and hate, the party that wants to put America last. They’ve allowed their Trump derangement syndrome to stop them from celebrating America and our people, and we will not allow them to forget that.”
Johnson argued the party is in “disarray,” claiming they don’t have a leader, vision or direction for the future.
“They’re flailing right now, so that’s why they resort to these antics,” he said. “They want to fight Trump. They want to fight the America First agenda. They want to fight all of us. And so they debase themselves by showing up on the House floor and acting like children. It’s sad.”
“This is an unfortunate day, and I wish we hadn’t had to go down this road.”
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace avoided acknowledging the growing backlash she is facing for comments she made about the 13-year-old cancer survivor who was featured in President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress.
Wallace was slammed for remarks in MSNBC’s coverage of Trump’s address inexplicably linking the young boy to Jan. 6 and the suicide of Capitol Police officers.
On Wednesday’s installment of “Deadline: White House,” Wallace refrained from addressing the uproar. In fact, there was minimal coverage of Trump’s address during her two-hour program.
One of the most memorable moments from Trump’s address was when he put a spotlight on teenager, DJ Daniel — an aspiring police officer who was told by doctors six years ago he had five months to live when he was first diagnosed with brain cancer.
“Tonight, DJ, we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all,” Trump said. “I am asking our new Secret Service Director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States.”
The moment sparked a standing ovation from Republicans in the room while Democratic lawmakers remained seated.
Wallace shared a grim response to her MSNBC colleagues.
“But I think this was a lesson in finding one thing that you let yourself feel,” Wallace said. “And I let myself feel joy about DJ, and I hope he’s alive for another, you know, 95 years, and I hope he lives the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop. He knows what he wants to do, and maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you.”
“I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer,” she continued. “But I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters, and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide, and I hope he isn’t one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”
The comments ignited sharp condemnation across social media, even making their way to the White House.
“Last night, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace disgustingly looped in a 13-year-old boy with brain cancer into an attack on the president over January 6,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Wednesday’s press briefing.
“It’s sad and frankly pathetic that Democrats and liberals in the legacy media continue to allow their hatred for the president to override their love for our country,” Leavitt later added.
Wallace was not the only network figure to chastise Trump for inviting Daniel to the chamber.
“For the record, and this is disgusting, the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who thus far survived pediatric cancer, as if the president had something to do with that,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Tuesday night.
“This was in the midst of him praising [the Department of Government Efficiency],” Maddow continued. “The DOGE cuts, among other things, have cut off funding for ongoing research into pediatric cancer.”
MSNBC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The “Groundhog Day” star, 74, recently set the record straight over rumors that popped up two years ago that he was dating singer Kelis, who is nearly 30 his junior.
“I was fascinated, I met this girl named Kelis, who – I got great press that I was dating her, which really raised my cred,” the “Ghostbusters” actor joked on SiriusXM’s “Sway in the Morning” while talking about how much he likes hip hop.
“Not all of us believed that,” co-host Sway Calloway said while Murray smiled and nodded.
“Sway, long story short,” one of his co-hosts joked.
Murray laughed, “But, you know, one of us could be on the rebound any second. She might need a plowman down there.”
In 2023, the U.S. Sun reported that Murray and Kelis had been “getting close for a while” while they were seen together at some of her performances.
The rumors spread a year after Kelis’ second husband, Mike Mora, died of cancer in 2022. Murray divorced his second wife, costume designer Jennifer Butler, in 2008.
Kelis responded in a June 2023 Instagram post of her in a bikini, saying, “lol no babe, I wouldn’t bother at all” after a commenter asked her: “Ma’am would you care to address these Bill Murray allegations?!? Cuz damn! What he doing with all that?!?”
Lin Manuel Miranda and the producers of his hit show “Hamilton” are throwing away their shot to light up the stage at the Kennedy Center in protest over the Trump administration replacing the failed leadership at the far-left institution.
The cancellation is just another example of the progressive elites in our nation insisting that we are living through some political emergency that must occupy our entire lives and impact every decision we make.
We saw this attitude of existential crisis from Democrats in Congress this week with their childish displays during President Donald Trump’s joint address, in which lefty lawmakers refused to stand or applaud for a childhood cancer survivor because … Trump.
Meanwhile, at Columbia University, pro-terrorist protests are erupting again, taking over libraries, because the political emergencies of our time make the mere act of simple studying an unacceptable luxury.
For the perpetually outraged Left, it all boils down to one message: “This is not normal.” They claim Trump is such a danger that we must, with every waking hour and breath, acknowledge and confront that fact.
But here’s the thing, and I hear it everywhere I go, from Texas to West Virginia, from California to Wisconsin: People want normalcy back. They want to be able to talk to their family and friends on the other political side, they want to enjoy a beer without engaging in the culture war.
By and large, the people standing in the way of a return to normalcy today are those on the Left, and Miranda’s harebrained scheme to close his own show is a perfect example.
Let’s imagine for a moment that Richard Grenell, Trump’s new president of the Kennedy Center, decided to cancel “Hamilton,” in which the Founding Fathers are played by people of color, and replace it with the 1970s hit “1776,” with an all-White cast.
All bloody hell would break loose, and rightfully so. But that didn’t happen, and would never happen, because like most conservatives, Grenell has no interest in censorship.
Miranda and his ilk are laughably claiming they are protesting political bias in the leadership shakeup, as if the ideological makeup of the Kennedy Center hasn’t been somewhere to the left of Chairman Mao for decades.
Long story short, the Trump administration is not censoring Miranda, Miranda is censoring Miranda.
Now, it will be argued that Trump himself is not exactly courting national unity with his breakneck executive orders, mass firings of public employees and moves like the Kennedy Center shakeup itself, but there is a key distinction: Trump’s actions are political, not social.
The president has always played by mafia rules. If you are in the game, you are a fair target, but he doesn’t attack regular folks. Trump rarely, if ever, demeans those who didn’t vote for him, perhaps in part because he doubts they even exist.
What Miranda is doing by canceling “Hamilton,” what Democrats in Congress did with their ridiculous antics during Trump’s address and what the hoodlums backing Hamas at Columbia have in common is their compulsion to invade your social life if you don’t share their world view. If you are a Trump supporter, they don’t even want to be in a room with you.
In my travels, I have met heartbroken parents whose kids won’t talk to them because of Trump, lifelong friends cast aside. In fact, almost everyone I ask has some such story. And you want to know something? That is what isn’t normal.
It isn’t normal to refuse to perform a play, or refuse to politely listen to a speech, or refuse to allow fellow students to do their work. It’s downright abnormal. Yet again and again, it is the choice that the American Left is making.
Perhaps progressives such as Miranda are rightfully scared that Americans will like the huge changes being wrought by the Trump administration, but can they give it six months to find out? After all, he did win the election.
The good news is that, unlike eight years ago when the widespread fear and disdain toward Trump was so flammable that stunts like canceling “Hamilton” in protest caught the fire of the public imagination, it can now barely light a candle.
The American people don’t want preening histrionics from our elites, they just want dinner and a show without their whole lives having to be about Donald Trump.
But sadly, Miranda and his show will not go on. Instead, he is boycotting the room where it happens, and that is a loss for everyone. A decade ago, “Hamilton” brought the country together. Today it divides us. Fortunately, the American people can see a better way forward, even if Lin Manuel Miranda cannot.
Tax season is upon us, and while many of you are preparing to file your returns, it’s crucial to be aware of the ever-evolving world of tax scams.
This year, it’s more important than ever to stay informed and on your guard.
New research by McAfee, a cybersecurity company, has shed light on how common these scams are and what kind of scams they are, revealing some surprising trends and highlighting the importance of protecting yourself.
The reality is that tax scams are more prevalent than we might prefer to acknowledge. Nearly one in four individuals (23%) say they know someone or have personally fallen victim to such scams. Let’s break down who’s being affected and how.
And when people do lose money, the amounts can be substantial:
Scammers use a variety of tactics to trick people into giving up their money or personal information. The research shows that many people have received suspicious messages claiming to be from the IRS or a state tax authority via:
These messages often include demands for:
It’s important to note that the IRS generally doesn’t initiate contact via phone, text or social media to demand immediate payment.
Different age groups are targeted with different scams. Here’s the breakdown.
Many people have received emails or texts about their “tax refund” or “tax refund e-statement” with a link. A large portion of people (39%) clicked on these links. It’s definitely alarming how many people end up falling for these scams.
Almost 40% of people who get a scam message or call actually send the scammer money. Younger adults are particularly vulnerable; more than half of 18- to 24-year-olds know someone who’s paid up. When people click those tempting links about tax refunds or e-statements, they’re playing a risky game: Almost 40% of people clicked on that email or text message, and that’s where scammers can really get you.
Looking ahead, AI is making scams even scarier. A whopping 87% of people are worried about AI’s role in creating realistic tax scams, but only 40% feel confident they could spot a deepfake from the IRS. As a result, many people (41%) are second-guessing real tax communications. In fact, more than half of people say the tax scam messages they’ve received this year are more sophisticated or realistic than last year. It’s no wonder that most people are concerned about tax fraud this season.
“Tax scammers are getting smarter, and many are using AI to make their tricks more convincing than ever, just when people are feeling the most pressure to file quickly,” said Abhishek Karnik, head of threat research at McAfee. “While not every scam uses AI, we predict a rise in more sophisticated, social engineering-focused tax fraud tactics as access to AI tools increases, including fraudulent emails, phone calls that use AI-generated audio and fake tax prep websites, making it easy for even the savviest filers to slip up.”
OK, so the scam landscape looks pretty grim. What can you do to stay safe? Here are some practical steps to protect yourself.
1. Be skeptical of unsolicited contact: Remember that the IRS will never contact you via phone, email, text or social media to demand immediate payment or request personal information.
2. Avoid clicking suspicious links; use strong antivirus software: Do not click on links in emails or texts from unknown senders. The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.
3. Guard your personal information: Protect your Social Security number, bank account details and other sensitive data carefully.
4. Create strong, unique passwords: Be sure to use strong passwords on financial and tax websites. Make sure each password is unique, especially for financial accounts. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 here.
5. Enable two-factor authentication: This adds an extra layer of security to your accounts that will prevent a hacker from getting into your accounts.
6. Invest in personal data removal services: These services monitor your personal information and alert you to potential fraud. While no service promises to remove all your data from the internet, having a removal service is great if you want to constantly monitor and automate the process of removing your information from hundreds of sites continuously over a longer period of time. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.
7. Don’t respond to texts/calls from unknown sources: Whatever you do, don’t respond to texts/calls from unknown sources whatsoever.
8. Trust your gut: If something feels off, it probably is. Verify information independently by contacting the IRS or your state tax authority directly.
Tax season doesn’t have to be a stressful time filled with worry. By staying informed, being on your guard and taking simple steps to protect yourself, you can confidently navigate the tax landscape and avoid falling victim to these scams. Be skeptical, be careful and always remember that when it comes to your taxes, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Have you or someone you know been targeted by a tax scam? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.
For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.
Piers Morgan called Nicolle Wallace’s reaction to President Donald Trump honoring a young boy with cancer this week “one of the most disgusting, shameful, reprehensible” things he’s ever seen in American media.
Morgan joined Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle Wednesday night and asked why MSNBC had not fired Wallace already.
Wallace received backlash from critics for her coverage of Trump’s address to Congress, and in particular, a moment where Trump honored DJ Daniels, a 13-year-old battling cancer, as an “honorary agent” to help fulfill his goal of becoming a law enforcement officer. Wallace used the moment to take a shot at Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“I hope he [Daniels] never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide,” Wallace said.
Morgan reacted:
“[It was] one of the most disgusting, shameful, reprehensible things I have ever seen on the news in America. And the bar was pretty high for that accolade. I thought what Nicole Wallace did last night in taking that boy’s story and in a weirdly dystopian, horrific way, asking us to think about whether he might kill himself. What on Earth was she thinking? Why is she still in her job today? Why has nobody at NBC watched that back like the rest of us, aghast in horror and said, you’re fired because that was a disgusting thing to do.”
He also blasted Rachel Maddow, one of the other MSNBC hosts covering Trump’s speech earlier in the week.
Morgan said:
And she wasn’t the only one at MSNBC. Rachel Maddow, in a laughably ironic rant about don’t politicize this boy’s story, then politicized his story and they couldn’t get their heads around it. Again, Laura, it was the lack of humanity. I don’t care if you’re on the left or the right. If you’re a human being and that story doesn’t just move you like a human being should be moved, there is something wrong with you. There was something wrong with those Democrats who didn’t get up off their backside. There’s something wrong with those MSNBC anchors, and it says an awful lot that they still pretend they are the caring ones, the compassionate ones.
The recent announcement by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to pour another $100 billion into the United States will have a direct impact on Arizona, but the debate on the future of the semiconductor industry persists after President Donald Trump’s address on Tuesday night.
Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., said that Trump’s influence played a critical role in the company building on their existing investment in the Grand Canyon State, as the announcement happened at the White House earlier this week.
“He knows how to make deals and having foreign companies come in the United States. That’s the best of all worlds because they’re abandoning the policies over there to come to United States to benefit from our lower regulation, our less taxes,” the congressman, whose district houses the TSMC facility, said in an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday, prior to Trump’s speech.
“It’s gonna be great. And for my constituents, again, we’re pushing hard to make sure that they focus on hiring Americans and veterans,” he added. Hamadeh’s staff met with TSMC last month, according to a news release.
The announcement comes as the president calls for the repeal of the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill that provided direct financial incentives to grow the semiconductor industry supply chain.
“Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money and they don’t spend it,” Trump said on Tuesday night.
The debate about the semiconductor industry’s success with the act largely centers around whether companies are coming to the U.S. because of a preferable business environment or because of grant and loan deals.
The legislation, which passed with some bipartisan support in 2022, came under direct scrutiny last year as Intel had major layoffs despite being cleared for $8.5 billion in federal funding.
“The CHIPS Act is what helped get TSMC to the US and Arizona. And it brought their $100 billion announcement that came earlier this week—at the White House. Getting rid of the CHIPS Act would hurt the entire American microchip industry, including suppliers, American companies, and more,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., posted to X on Tuesday night, as the repeal effort was mentioned in Trump’s Joint Address to Congress.
“Plus, it unravels the years of bipartisan work it took to bring these investments to Arizona. We can’t let politics get in the way of that,” the senator added.
When it comes to TSMC in particular, the effort to woo the large chip producer was well underway during the first Trump administration – before the act became law under former President Joe Biden, but the company did enter preliminary agreements for financial incentives under the program.
“It was actually President Trump, Ric Grinnell, Wilbur Ross, that brought [TSMC] into the United States,” Hamadeh said.
The freshman Republican lawmaker added that the president’s tariff policies, which include Mexico and Canada, will help boost American manufacturing.
“I think tariffs is excellent, because you’re already seeing the results of it so quickly. These companies, they understand they could hire Americans, they could manufacture in America. Right now, there’s just an incentive for them not to,” he said. “And now what President Trump has removed that incentive by a lot, by imposing these tariffs. So clearly his policies are working.”
The bulk of the semiconductor industry rests in Taiwan, which has raised national security concerns given the high tensions between China and the U.S. Chips play a critical role in operating everyday technology, including consumer electronics like phones and computers.
Republicans are pushing back against so-called sanctuary cities and jurisdictions as President Donald Trump ramps up plans for mass deportations.
“All of the mayors here today are actively working to harm the American people you represent,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told the mayors of four sanctuary cities during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. “You all have blood on your hands.”
The comments, which were addressed to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, come as the Trump administration continues to push the speedy deportations of illegal immigrants that the president promised on the campaign trail.
But those efforts have been hindered by sanctuary jurisdictions, which have passed rules that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities, most notably by not honoring U.S. Immigration Customs and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) detainer requests.
The four mayors who testified at Wednesday’s hearing represented some of the largest sanctuary jurisdictions in the country, a policy that has generated controversy amid multiple high-profile crimes that have been committed by illegal immigrants.
“Sanctuary mayors owe the American people an explanation for city policies that jeopardize public safety and violate federal immigration law by releasing dangerous criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets,” House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a press release before the hearing.
One sanctuary jurisdiction that was not represented at the Wednesday hearing was California, which in 2018 passed “Trump-proof” legislation aimed at protecting the state’s illegal residents from federal immigration authorities.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond told Fox News Digital that the law, SB 54, has severely limited what local California jurisdictions can do to fight back against illegal immigration.
“They can’t do anything about it,” Desmond said of the state’s local law enforcement agencies under SB 54, adding that even if officers see suspected illegal immigrants coming ashore in boats, they are forbidden from helping enforce federal immigration laws.
“That’s been hindering California as far as law enforcement and immigration enforcement,” Desmond said.
Desmond noted that some California jurisdictions have even gone further than SB 54, putting additional barriers in place to hinder immigration enforcement.
“My colleagues in December voted to not allow our law enforcement in our jails to be able to notify ICE directly that this person who has been convicted and tried and sentenced and now in our jails is here illegally,” Desmond said.
“They now have to get a warrant from a state or federal judge to turn anybody over to ICE,” he added, noting that the rule is “just another obstacle blocking law enforcement.”
“My Democratic colleagues are trying to put more obstacles in the way of actually reporting criminals to ICE,” Desmond said.
Nevertheless, Trump border czar Tom Homan has vowed to fight back against sanctuary cities, saying last month that federal authorities are “going to keep coming” no matter what road blocks are put in the administration’s way.
“They’re not going to stop us,” he said during an appearance on Fox News. “It’s less efficient to arrest a bad guy in public where he’s hiding from us, and we’re trying to arrest him on his turf rather than arrest them in a county jail, which is where we should be arresting them. It takes one agent to arrest the bad guy in the county jail. It takes a whole team to find somebody that doesn’t want to be found in the neighborhoods, but we’re going to keep doing this.”
That effort is being boosted by Trump’s GOP allies in Congress, who on Wednesday sought to highlight the dangers posed by sanctuary policies.
“Every crime committed by someone in the United States illegally is a crime that would not have been committed. Laken Riley, Ruby Garcia, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, the woman set on fire in the New York subway, these are all assaults, rapes, murders and other crimes that would not have taken the lives of these people if those people were not here illegally,” Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., told the four mayors. “They were given safe harbor.”
Last week, the Trump administration reportedly pressured Israel to vote against Ukraine on the Europe-backed U.N. General Assembly resolution, which condemned Russia for the invasion and affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity. As a result, Israel sided with Russia, North Korea and the United States, and against Ukraine.
The “Deal-Maker-in-Chief” is almost certainly brokering a rapprochement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in order to break up the unholy Russia-Iran alliance, which poses a grave security risk to the U.S. and which former President Joe Biden had strengthened by his misguided foreign policy course.
Until Biden caused a rift between Moscow and Tel Aviv by compelling Israel to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, Putin and Netanyahu had a positive transactional relationship. It was based on the personal rapport and the shared belief that Islamic extremism is a common enemy, with which there cannot be a compromise. In the past, Israel did not criticize Russia for its wars in Muslim Chechnya, nor did it express any negative reaction to Putin’s annexation of Crimea.
Israel studiously maintained a neutral posture during the initial stages of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, having refrained from condemning Putin for the invasion, refused to join the U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow, and opted to provide only humanitarian aid to Ukraine rather than military hardware.
Both realpolitik-minded and pragmatic, Putin and Netanyahu viewed their undeclared alliance as strategically valuable for the stability and security in the region.
Since becoming president in 2000, Putin has drastically improved the Russian-Israeli relationship, following decades of hostile relations between the USSR and Israel.
Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel in 2005 and pursued a largely pro-Israel policy as the Jewish state became home to the world’s largest population of Jews from the former Soviet Union.
With 1.2 million Russian and former Soviet émigrés living in Israel and 15%-17% of the Israeli population being Russian-speaking, Putin was never in favor of Iran, who regularly threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, having an operational nuclear capability.
In 2010, the Kremlin, complying with U.N. sanctions, banned by a presidential decree the sale to Iran of S-300 air defense missile system, which would have augmented the defenses of Iranian nuclear sites from airstrikes. Additionally, in 2019, amid rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, Putin declined Iran’s request to buy the advanced S-400 missile defense system. This was probably in response to concerns shared by Israel and Saudi Arabia and because he sought to maintain a positive working relationship with the two.
Netanyahu reciprocated, having even attended a Russian military parade in 2018, standing alongside Putin. For Bibi, Israel’s security trumps optics. The Israel Defense Forces were critically reliant on security coordination with the Russian military in Syria, where Russia controls the skies and has tacitly allowed Israeli fighter jets to conduct strikes on Iranian proxies.
As a result of the rift, however, Putin strengthened his ties with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, hailing the “very close” relationship between Russia and Iran.
With the Biden administration trying to choke the Russian economy with draconian sanctions, Putin started to actively cooperate with Iran, including likely supplying Tehran with sensitive nuclear and space launch technologies. “We are actively working together in the international arena, and our assessments of events taking place in the world are often very close,” Putin said in October.
Last year, in April and September, around the time of Iran’s direct attacks on Israel, Reuters reported that Russian weapons experts visited Iranian missile production facilities, a sign of deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, which is undoubtedly a cause for alarm in Washington and Jerusalem.
Trump is a pragmatist who places America’s security first and Israel’s a close second. He likely understands that Moscow and Tehran, who share a tumultuous history, aren’t natural allies as they are trying to portray. They’ve been pushed together by the unwise and incompetent Washington policies that, until Trump, have been driven by ideologies and wishful thinking rather than realism and U.S. security.
Trump likely believes, correctly, that strategically, it is in the U.S. interest to repair our relations with Russia, foster a Putin-Netanyahu rapprochement, and break up the Moscow-Tehran axis, in order to neutralize the deadly threat from Iran as it draws nearer in its capabilities to being a fully nuclear-armed state.
Like Putin and Netanyahu, the bombastic and strategically minded commander in chief doesn’t fear the “wrong” optics or being called, yet again, a Putin apologist. Trump wants to get done what must be done to ensure America’s security and the world’s stability.
Netanyahu is almost certainly on board with Trump’s grand plan as Israel is seeking to exert its own influence on U.S. policy. Jerusalem is advocating the U.S. to allow Russia to keep its military bases in Syria, which is now ruled by a terrorist regime, following the Turkey-backed coup.
To reduce the threat to its borders, Israel views Russia as an ally in Syria and a counterweight to Turkey, with whom Jerusalem has had tense relations, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan aims to shift the balance of power in the Middle East in Turkey’s favor.
The Trump effect is already felt. Russia has invited Israel to attend the May 9th Victory parade in Moscow, commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Moscow, which is cautiously optimistic about Trump’s strategic realignment, offering Putin a seat at the table with the big boys, stated that “unfriendly states,” including Ukraine, Germany, France and others are not invited. On Saturday, Netanyahu’s military secretary, Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, was en route to Moscow to discuss “strengthening of cooperation in the interests of security.”
Iran was on the agenda during the U.S.-Russia high-level meeting in Riyadh, kicking off the peace talks on Ukraine, according to Putin’s presidential aide Yuriy Ushakov. Putin reportedly may also serve as a broker between Washington and Tehran on a new nuclear deal.
Trump has inherited from the Biden administration global chaos and a world on fire, which he is trying to put out. Look more deeply into his game plan before launching criticisms at him.
