22 posts from Sunday, October 19, 2025

Is there a timeline to get Hamas to disarm? It's not a hard timeline, but it's a line in my own mind. And at a certain point, if they don't do what they're supposed to do, then we'll have to do it for them. If we win the tariff case, which hopefully we will, it's vital to the interests of our country. We're the wealthiest country there is. We'll see what happens with China. They're always looking for an edge. You know, they ripped off our country for years. I think we're going to be fine with China, but we have to have a fair deal. It's got to be fair. Investing in America, $20 trillion. No country's ever done anywhere even near that. It's a miracle what's happening. We are building the greatest country in the world. If they took away tariffs, then they've taken away our national security. The Democrats are Kamikazes right now. They're Kamikaze pilots right now. They have nothing going. They have no future. They have incompetent candidates. Look at what we did in D.C. Washington, D.C., was a death trap. We moved out 1,700 career criminals and criminals from other countries that came in through Biden's open border. We're going to go to San Francisco. The differences I think they want us in San Francisco are cities that are Democrat-run. Exclusively, just about, are unsafe cities. They want $1.5 trillion for health care for illegal aliens. They come into our country. If we do that, it will jeopardize the health care of the citizens of our country. I see John Bolton just got indicted. That's a good thing. He's a bad guy. All he wanted to do was drop bombs on people. I don't know what he did. It must be pretty severe. But whatever it is, let the courts decide. Obama spied on my campaign, and he did it knowing it was illegal, and there were a lot of dishonest people, and I suspect they'll be caught.

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Donald Trump is getting a lot of publicity, and rightfully so, for breaking the impasse in the Israeli-Hamas war. Once Donald Trump started to intervene in these disputes all over the world, Ethiopia in Egypt, Kosovo in Serbia, Armenia in Azerbaijan, Pakistan in India, that created momentum and confidence in his negotiating skills. And we have on the table a blueprint for a ceasefire with the exchange of the hostages they took on October 7th. Why is this happening now? He was dealing again from a position of strength. You develop personal relationships with them, you offer them trade and lucrative incentives. It's a completely different approach, a completely different world. He's going to use that same formula to address the war in Ukraine. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. Donald Trump is getting a lot of publicity, and rightfully so, for breaking the impasse in the Israeli-Hamas war. And we have on the table a blueprint for a ceasefire with the exchange of hostages from Hamas, surrendering the hostages they took on October 7th, two years ago. And then perhaps as many as, eventually, 1700 terrorists, some of them convicted murderers, will be given back to what is left of Hamas. Israel will recede somewhat from its operations in Gaza to about holding or occupying about 50% with a proposed graduated withdrawal as Hamas supposedly meets the conditions of the ceasefire that everybody envisions in phase two may lead to a peace. Why is this happening now, though? It didn't happen under Biden, a settlement in the Middle East. It did not happen under Trump's first administration. It did not happen under Obama. It did not happen on George Bush. There were about 10 things that had to happen. All these intricate pieces in this puzzle, the pieces of the peace, all fell into success in a way that made it possible. What were they? The first thing was that Donald Trump came into office, and he cut, embargoed, sanctioned Iranian oil. And then, more importantly, he made it clear to the Iranians they had to stop progress toward getting a bomb. That was one of the conditions that Israel demanded, and understandably so. And no one had ever really done that. They hadn't believed that the United States would dare enter Iranian airspace. And then, more importantly, Donald Trump allowed Benjamin Netanyahu in this tit-for-tat missile barrage that Israel and Iran had waged. He allowed them to go into Iranian airspace and to destroy Iranian air defenses and to take out a lot of the generals and physicists and weaken Iran. Once that happened, then the United States then came in and destroyed the facilities that were responsible for creating a nuclear weapon. That was a game changer because it did two things. It removed the specter that Iran was invincible with all its money and with a bomb. And more importantly, it did a great favor to Israel, which Donald Trump would draw on later. Second, it allowed Israel, unlike the Biden administration, to destroy the Ring of Fire, to destroy Hezbollah as an immediate threat, to hit back at the Houthis and to destroy Hamas. If we had this conversation three or four years ago, people would say Israel is beleaguered. It's doomed. It's got Iran. It's got the Houthis. It's got Hamas. They're gone. And the result is an enormous increase in the reputation and stature of Israel. It is now like the United States dealing from a position of unaccustomed strength. There's a couple of other reasons Donald Trump created personal relationships in the Arab community. He did not insult the Saudis, as Joe Biden had done during the 2020 campaigns. He did not alienate the Arab community. He did not alienate Benjamin Netanyahu. He gave them concessions. He praised them. He created personal relationships. He did trade deals. He used tariffs, his carrot and the sticks, pressures and leverages. And the result was he gained influence and brought a lot of different players into the context of the ceasefire. There were the Egyptians. There were the Turkish delegations. There was the Gulf States. There was Jordan. In other words, he shared the responsibility to a number of Arab nations and to Israel. And who did he not bring in? He did not bring in people and organizations in the past that had been utter failures. There was no United Nations contingent. There was no EU contingent. Mr. Macron might have an alternate peace plan, but he was not brought into the negotiations. And why weren't they? Because they have no ability, like the League of Nations of the past, to enforce anything they say. And Donald Trump knew that. There was a couple of other things. Donald Trump is not Joe Biden. He was dealing again from a position of strength. Once people saw what he did to Iran, and once people saw what Israel did to Iran, they understood they mean business. And once they looked at what the moonscape in Gaza and what's happened to the elite of the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist cadres, they knew that they did not want to get on his bad side. So there were carrots and there were sticks. There's a couple of other things that were really important as well. Once Donald Trump started to intervene in these disputes all over the world, I'm talking about Ethiopia in Egypt, Kosovo in Serbia, Armenia in Azerbaijan, Pakistan in India, and others, he was able to achieve cease fires. That created momentum and confidence in his negotiating skills. So when he intervened directly to kind of craft a ceasefire, people in that region looked over at all these other areas and said, "Well, if they can have a ceasefire in Egypt or India or the Balkans, then maybe we will be part of this successful record." And of course, what's looming on the horizon is if he is successful in the Middle East, you know what's going to happen next. He's going to use that same formula to address the war in Ukraine. Again, art of the deal style where you do not insult any of the major players. You develop personal relationships with them. You offer them trade and lucrative incentives concerning tariffs or no tariffs. And then you have a not spoken about, but a pretty big stick based on your former ability to make decisive decisions, whether killing Soleimani or Baghdadi or destroying ISIS or destroying in this particular term, the Iranian nuclear facilities. You add it all up and it's a completely different approach, a completely different world. Much more players on the international scene have stakes in this to see it succeed than we saw in the past, either with Europe, prior American administrations or the United Nations. Does that mean it's a guaranteed success? No. That means it has a good chance at a ceasefire that holds and a 50/50 chance of a lasting peace which is saying a lot in the war-torn Middle East. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Seek. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhanssen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

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- Dan Scavino, welcome back to my view. - Thank you. - Yeah. - Thank you. - It's been a while since we last talked to you. You've had some time to kind of get your feet wet for the second administration here. And now you have a new role, but before we get to that, I wanna talk about this historic Middle East trip. You got to go on it with the president. We saw all your great videos from Air Force One, but tell the American people from your perspective, you gotta view none of us did. What is it that we didn't get to see about that trip that you got to experience when it relates to President Trump? - It was actually very surreal because a lot of people said that President Trump couldn't get this done, couldn't get it done. MAGA knew deep down that if anybody could get this deal done with Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner and Marco Rubio and that great team, that it would be President Trump. And we're on the plane going out. We all knew this was a historical moment. There was a great sense of pride on the plane, you know, checking in on the president up in his office, you know, just, he does so much reading and consuming of information. He knew how real the moment was too. Then when we entered out into the Middle East and you had the F-16s escorting the plane in, which has happened before, but it was just, it was a great feeling that the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, Donald J. Trump, was there on a mission that he wanted to complete, you know, that he talked about and talked about and talked about. And everybody said no, no, no. And he ended the war and it's absolutely incredible. You know, millions of lives saved amongst all these wars being ended. 20 hostages coming home. Just think about it. If President Trump was not in office, this would still be going on. - It was historic for sure. There's no doubt about it. You were announced last weekend as the head of PPO, presidential personnel. So for the American people, maybe give them a sense of what this job actually entails, what you do, and why it is so important to the American people, so important to national security and really the future of the country. - It was an honor for the president to ask me to take this additional job on. PPO is responsible for vetting, interviewing, and bringing in candidates, political appointees, to all of these agencies throughout the government. And something that we really wanna keep an eye on, which has been done, is, you know, bringing people with the values of the president that want to complete his agenda, making America great again, America first policies. I work very closely with all of the cabinet members, or I will be working very closely. So the communication you have with the cabinet members is very important in staffing up their agencies with political appointees. PPO also oversees ambassador appointments all around the world. So we have those to fulfill. We're also responsible for US Marshals and fulfilling those obligations all around the country. Work very closely with the DOJ on that front. So as I said, I'm learning every day. That passes. I'm a quick learner and I've hit the ground running. - As it relates to the Middle East, since we just talked about that, obviously people are really excited about what happened there and they wanna see more forward progress. Where do you come in on that? What is it that you're gonna be able to do from this office to help implement phase two? - It's a great question and things that actually came up yesterday in a couple of meetings. So that's my learning process, but we will need to fulfill special envoys that are gonna be out there, as well as oversight of the rebuilding of Gaza. And there'll be commissions that will be created in which we'll assist in. And with that, I would work with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Steve Whitcoff, who is just such a great, great, great man. Love the guy. As well as Jared is very involved in getting this done as well. So it's really a team effort and I'm willing to put forth the office with anything we can assist with in getting the job done and fulfilling obligations out there to support their mission in completing each phase. - Well, something else that this administration has been very successful at doing is a crime crackdown. What else are you involved with from PPO that can help facilitate more of this crime crackdown all across the country? I imagine you guys have a role in that too. - We do, we do with fulfilling judgeships within districts. U.S. Marshals, like I mentioned earlier, the U.S. Marshals are absolutely incredible in what they do. And it's just getting leadership in each district within each community, county, and state throughout the country. So we'll fulfill all of that. And we'll work with all entities. It is a team effort and you see it every day. It's an atmosphere of where everybody wants to work together. I'll tell you, behind the scenes in these cabinet meetings and in these meetings that take place in the Oval, everybody's on the same page, marching in unison to deliver the president's agenda and his goals in making Washington DC safe again, in making Memphis safe again. Chicago, how can these guys like Chicago, how could they not want to make Chicago safe again? I'll never understand it for the life of me, how these people do not want to work with this administration. And I'm talking Pritzker and I'm talking Newsom. How and why? - Yeah, and it's sad because it's hurting the residents of their cities and states. So Dan, as we sit here in Washington DC right now, the government is still shut down. What do you make of the priorities of the Democrat Party? - It makes absolutely zero sense. There are more issues and problems in this world. And they decide to fight to give illegal immigrants health insurance and they're keeping the entire government closed down. And I joke and I say, what, the government's closed down? For the past two weeks, this White House and other agencies, we're getting things done. We're marching forward. Look what just happened in the Middle East. You wouldn't even know the government was closed down. To close down the government, they are losing on this likes of which, I was gonna say they've never lost before, but they've lost a lot before. So they're just not on message. They don't know what they're doing. Zero leadership, zero leadership. I think they're truly embarrassing themselves. Absolutely embarrassing themselves. - I know we talked very early on in this administration about the difference between President Trump, the first term, 'cause you were here for the entirety of that, and the second term. How is he day to day now? Where do you see him overall? And I feel like this guy is the limit for this president and this administration. - The differences are absolutely incredible. We're not being attacked every day or investigated every day. The head games they played, they wanted to silence us. They ultimately wanted to put us all away for life. Then when he announced for the presidency and we went full steam ahead, we worked in courtrooms behind the scenes. We're putting out truth social posts. We're campaigning. We're turning his press conferences in at the conclusion of a court hearing. Butler, Pennsylvania, we talked about last time, changed everything, literally changed everything. It was from that point forward where I knew that he would be the 47th president of the United States. And then he just brought on a great team of people when we won the presidency. I mean, it is all surreal. I don't have time to even sit back and think about it and think about what we've been through and what we've done and what we've achieved. There will never be a President Trump ever, ever, ever again. He's changing history for the better. He's fighting every day for your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, my family. That's why I do what I do. We could go out tomorrow and make millions of dollars. I instead take a government salary to fight for the American people every day. And that's everybody in this administration, all for President Trump because they adore and they love the guy and they love the American people. They're patriots. And that's why we're here. We're on a mission. We're on a mission to deliver for everybody out there. And we're gonna continue this mission. And we're gonna fight hard each and every day, no matter what hit pieces come our way, no matter who tries to take us down. We're gonna fight, fight, fight.

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>> Just on the shutdown, do you think that Trump should get directly involved here, get the leaders in the room, try to figure out a way out of this? >> Well, I've got mixed feelings about it. Ultimately, before we can reach an agreement, the President will have to be involved. But I don't know what the President would have to trade today. I don't know what we have to trade today. My Democratic friends keep saying, well, we want you to automatically renew, apparently forever, the subsidies to the Affordable Care Act. But even if we renew the subsidies, it's not gonna fix the problems in the Affordable Care Act. Any increases that people see in November are a result of the fact that the Affordable Care Act, I mean, it just hasn't worked. When it was passed, we were told that it would make health insurance affordable. It obviously hasn't. It would make it more accessible, it hasn't. You have to go on an exchange that's created by the government. You can't just go into the private market, and it's been very expensive. And to me, the whole thing's broken. And I would like to see the Congress, the Senate sit down and say, subsidies are no subsidies. What can we do since this is costing people so much money to try to fix it? You're not gonna do that over a weekend. You're not gonna do that over a week. It's gonna take a while. And that's why, if my Democratic friends stick to their guns and say we're not going to open up government until you tell us your plan and we want to make sure it works for fixing the healthcare delivery system, we're gonna be shut down a long time. Right now, I think this will be the longest shutdown in the history of ever. And I don't say that happily. I don't say that proudly. I'm just saying that realistically. Do you go to past Thanksgiving? I do. I do. I just don't see what's gonna get us out of it. Because what my Democratic colleagues are asking for, you know this. It's just not realistic. I mean, it's just not realistic. If they were asking for something that was reasonable, I would say it was something we could negotiate. But to insist that we just renew all of the subsidies for the Broken Affordable Care Act, that we repeal all the healthcare provisions of the one big beautiful bill, that we put up 500 million dollars, half a billion dollars for corporation for public broadcasting. That's unreasonable. They know we're not gonna do that. Okay. Appreciate the time. All right, man. See you later.

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- President Trump looked at the Taliban leader and said this. "I want to leave Afghanistan, but it's going to be a conditions-based withdrawal." And translator translated. And he said, "If you harm a hair on a single American, I'm going to kill you." And translator goes... And Trump goes, "Tell them what I said." - Tell them what I said. - Tell them what I said. - Reached in his pocket, pulled out a satellite photo of the leader of the Taliban's home and candidate. - Shut up! - Got up and walked out the room, nigga. (rap music) (upbeat music)

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[Music] Well, perhaps there is a simple answer. Not an easy answer, but simple. If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right, we'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of men on Earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. [Music] Every time that I look in the mirror All these lies and my face getting clearer The past is gone And when my life does keep going I pray Everybody's got the do's and I pray Yeah, I know nobody knows where it comes and where it goes I know everybody says you've got things to know [Music] If my life's in those written pages Live and learn, be fools and forsake it You know it's true I'm a fiend Come back to you Sing a winner, sing for me here Sing a winner, sing for me here Sing a winner just once again Maybe tomorrow we could all take you away [Music] Dream on, dream on, dream on This is your thing come true [Music] Dream on, dream on, dream on Dream on, dream on [Music] Dream on, dream on, dream on, dream on Dream on, dream on, dream on [Music] Sing winner, sing for me here Sing for me, sing for me here Sing a winner just once again Maybe tomorrow we could all take you away Sing a winner, sing for me here Sing for me now, sing for me here Sing a winner just once again Maybe tomorrow we could all take you away [Music] As long as the American people hold in their hearts Deep in devoted lovers' country Then there is nothing that this nation cannot achieve The best is yet to come

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Yo soy Georgia! Soy una mujer! Soy una marre! Soy italiana! Soy Cristiana! No me lo puede quidar!

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I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room, sir. A lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today. You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congresswoman women of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from. You have used words like "animal" and "rabbit" to describe black district attorneys. You've attacked black journalists, calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask are "stupid" and "racist." You've had dinner with the white supremacists at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question, sir, now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that? Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, first question. You don't even say, "Hello, how are you? Are you with ABC?" because I think they're a fake news network, a terrible network. And I think it's disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country. I've done so much for the black population of this country, including employment, including opportunity zones with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs. I've done so much, and, you know, when I say this, historically black colleges and universities were out of money, they were stone-cold broke, and I saved them, and I gave them long-term financing, and nobody else was doing it. I think it's a very rude introduction. I don't know exactly why you would do something like that. And let me go a step further. I was invited here, and I was told my opponent, whether it was Biden or Kamala, I was told my opponent was going to be here. It turned out my opponent isn't here. You invited me under false pretense. And then you said, "You can't do it with Zoom." Well, you know, where's Zoom? She's going to do it with Zoom, and she's not coming. And then you were half an hour late, just so we understand. I have too much respect for you to be late. They couldn't get their equipment working, or something was wrong. Mr. President, I would love that you could answer the question on your rhetoric and why you may be a black woman. I have answered the question. I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln. Better than President Johnson who signed the Voting Rights Act. Can you just start off a question-and-answer period, especially when you're 35 minutes late because you couldn't get your equipment to work in such a hostile manner? I think it's a disgrace. Let me just ask a follow-up, sir, and then we'll move on to other questions here. You believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman. Well, I can say, no, I think it's maybe a little bit different. So I've known her a long time indirectly -- not directly, very much. And she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black? But you know what? I respect either one. I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she went -- she became a black person. Just to be clear, sir, do you believe that she is -- I think somebody should look into that, too.

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Keep your hands up, there's nothing in your hand. >> You guys be safe, thank you. >> All right. >> Lock them up. >> There's been over 380 arrests made in Memphis, Tennessee in just a little bit over a week. >> I've been walked to the store, y'all got me a bag of ice. >> I ain't walked to the store in about 20 years. >> Boy, I tell you what, Memphis is a mad house. The National Guard's done made 300 arrests, done taken 300 criminals off the street, and found like nine missing children. >> Ever since 12 and Trump done came to Memphis, I ain't heard no gunshots at night. >> For the first time in five years, my kids have been able to play in the backyard and be able to do it comfortably. >> When the sis in Memphis says she's grateful because the last two weeks it's been quiet, it's been peaceful, her kids have been able to play. And y'all have a problem with that? It's becoming real clear who the enemy is. >> It just really is astonishing how many people are thanking the National Guard for coming in and cleaning up their city, Memphis. >> Let's take a look at this video.

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(upbeat music)

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Hey, don't give me this, both sides, bullshit. Mr. Director, I want to ask you, the man who tried to kill Republican congressmen at the Congressional Baseball practice nearly killing House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, left-wing or right-wing violence? Sir, I believe it was a left-wing ideology. Okay. Burn down cities during the summer of love in the George Floyd riots, left-wing violence or right-wing violence? Left-wing. The Waukesha Christmas Parade Massacre, left-wing or right-wing violence? Left-wing. The Lee Zeldin stabbing attempt, left-wing or right-wing? Left-wing. The Covenant school shooting in Nashville, left-wing or right-wing? Left-wing. The Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on President Trump, left-wing or right-wing? Left-wing. The Trump International West Palm Beach assassination attempt, left-wing. The abundant live Christian school shooting, left-wing. The United Care CEO's murder, left-wing. Tesla's burned. Key, damaged. Firebomb. Left-wing. Left-wing. There is embassy, left-wing. The ICE facilities, firebomb, left-wing. The Minnesota Catholic school shooting, left-wing. The anti-white Charlotte and North Carolina stabbing, left-wing. The attempted Utah news state firebombing, left-wing. And now, of course, the culmination of this vile trend, a left-wing assassination of Charlie Kirk. So don't give me this both sides. If we want to get to unity, let's be honest. Let's be honest. (upbeat music)

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