Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s Friday night purge of senior Pentagon leaders is a threat to the nonpartisan nature of the military.
“It was completely unjustified. These men and women were superb professionals. They were committed to their oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. And, apparently, what Trump and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth are trying to do is to politicize the Department of Defense, and it’s not surprising they put Kash Patel as the FBI director, who is a partisan, who has no, I think, respect for the traditions of neutrality of the FBI,” Reed said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“And, now they’ve turned to DOD, and they want everyone in DOD beholden to the president, not to the Constitution,” he said. “They want everyone there to do what they’re told, regardless of the law.”
Trump fired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown in a controversial move Friday evening. In addition to Brown, the administration fired other senior officials, including the Navy’s top admiral, Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti.
It was the first time two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have had their roles terminated.
In a social media post, Trump said he was nominating retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a group of senior uniformed leaders who serve as the top military advisers to the president and Department of Defense officials. The Joint Chiefs of Staff was created with the idea of it being apolitical. By design, officers’ four-year terms intersect two presidents.
Reed said the purge degraded the military, especially the firing of three top military lawyers.
“What was also startling in the weekend was firing all the advocate generals of the military. If you’re going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers. So we’re looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military, and the repercussions are being felt already,” he said. “People questioning whether they should say, talented leaders, wondering if they should get out. It is, it’s, the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of the military and politicization of the military.”
Retired Gen. George Casey Jr., a former U.S. Army chief of staff who served under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, pointed out that Brown’s dismissal could leave the United States vulnerable.
“That’s extremely destabilizing at a time that there’s a lot going on domestically and a lot going on abroad. When you remove so many senior leaders, especially without justifying and giving due cause, it creates huge uncertainty in the ranks, and it just isn’t a good thing for the military at a very difficult time,” Casey said.
Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said they would remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from the military and Hegseth alluded that Brown’s firing was because of his involvement in those initiatives.
“That’s a problem for me, because these leaders were following the lawful directives of the civilian leaders of the past administration, and now we’re going to put leaders in jeopardy and punish them for following lawful orders from another administration. I mean, give me a break,” Casey said.
However, despite his disapproval of the administration’s action, Casey said that Trump acted within his rights as president. He added that the firings should have been explained better.
“I may disagree with the timing and everything of these, of these removals, but it’s purely, it is significantly within the president’s prerogative. That’s his, that’s his prerogative. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and we follow the directives of, the, our civilian leaders,” Casey said.
In an interview Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Democratic Sen. Jack Reed decried President Donald Trump’s recent verbal attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and increased alignment with Russia.
“Essentially, this is President Trump surrendering to the Russians,” Reed told co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“This is not a statesman or a diplomat,” Reed added. “This is just someone who admires Putin, does not believe in the struggle of the Ukrainians and is committed to cozying up to an autocrat.”
Reed said statements Trump made recently about Ukraine were “generally misleading or completely false,” and suggest he has “no real intention to engage the Ukrainian government to find out what they need” in negotiations with Russia.
“I’d be more confident in that suggestion if there was a vigorous dialogue between the Ukrainians and the United States with respect to these negotiations, that we understood where their lines are, et cetera. That apparently has not happened,” he said.
In order to solve the war in Ukraine, Reed said it will be crucial to “communicate to the Russians that we will be very, very serious about their actions in Ukraine.”
“What we have to do is keep the pressure on, and then go into negotiations — negotiations that will include the Ukrainians, not exclude them.” he said “And then with this pressure, hopefully, Putin will decide that the cost is too great to continue this effort.”
Talking to Raddatz later, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a vile dictator and thug” who is “clearly responsible for the war in Ukraine,” despite Trump’s false assertions earlier in the week that Zelenskyy started the war.
“Russia, China and Iran have been working in a coordinated effort to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel and the free world,” Lawler said. “They are not our allies or our friends — we must be clear eyed about that.”
Lawler said he “did not agree with the President’s rhetoric about Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” but also said that Zelenskyy “saying that the president is falling for Russian disinformation does not help his cause.”
“What I would say is this, it does not behoove either side to have this public back and forth,” Lawler said. “I think President Zelenskyy needs to work with the administration, especially with respect to economic cooperation.”
A photo released by the Department of Homeland Security of the first flight of migrants who were part of Tren de Aragua, preparing to takeoff for Guantanamo Bay, Feb. 4, 2025. Via DHS.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transported 177 migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras for final removal to Venezuela, according to a post on X from the agency.
Most of the migrants being housed at Guantanamo Bay were Venezuelan.
In court filings, the government contended the Guantanamo Bay operation was “meant to be a temporary stopover” on the path to repatriation. The migrants left on two flights on Thursday.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a brief video earlier in February that she visited the base and checked out the operations the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense were standing up.
“I’m down here on Guantanamo Bay, checking out some of the operations we’re standing up to house the worst of the worst, and illegal criminals from the United States of America they won’t be there for long” she said in a video on X.
“ICE intends to use [Naval Station Guantanamo Bay] as a temporary staging facility for aliens being repatriated and expects the average length of stay at the MOC to be as limited to the time necessary to effect the removal orders,” an ICE official wrote on Thursday.
There were 10 U.S. military flights that originally transported all the migrants to Guantanamo Bay, with the first carrying 10 migrants arriving on Feb. 4.
“These 10 high-threat individuals are currently being housed in vacant detention facilities,” the Defense Department said in a statement at the time. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking this measure to ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination.”
And Noem added in a post on X at the time, “President @realdonaldtrump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today.”
While some of the migrants were suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the charges they faced were unclear.
“Where are you going to put Tren de Aragua before you send them all the way back?” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked. “How about a maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay, where we have the space?”
Guantanamo Bay’s Migrant Operations Center was designated by President Donald Trump in a Jan. 29 executive order to house migrants without legal status living in the United States. The Migrant Operations Center, separate from the high-security prison facility that has been used to hold al Qaeda detainees, was set to be operational at “full capacity,” according to the order.
The removal of the migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras follows the migrants being granted access just this Thursday to speak to their attorneys over the phone.
DHS said at the time that it was determining “feasibility and necessity” for in-person visits from the migrants’ attorneys.
“There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people,” Trump said on Feb. 4. “So we’re going to use it.
“The migrants are rough, but we have some bad ones, too,” he added. “I’d like to get them out. It would be all subject to the laws of our land, and we’re looking at that to see if we can.”
It is unclear whether there will be future migrant flights to Guantanamo Bay.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Laura Romero and Stacey Dec contributed to this report.
(Photo by Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In an unprecedented move both Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral, were fired from their posts by President Donald Trump, marking the first time that two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been dismissed from their senior military roles.
As a retired military officer, Caine will be brought back onto active duty and will have to be confirmed by the Senate in order to assume the role of the president’s senior military adviser and the nation’s top military officer.
Caine retired after serving 34 years in the Air Force where he served as an F-16 pilot, the assistant commanding general at Joint Special Operations Command, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s associate director for military affairs.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump announced on his Truth Social account. “He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.”
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brown became the president’s top military adviser in October 2023 and was to complete a four-year term at the end of September 2027. He was the second African American to serve in the role and Franchetti was the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top admiral.
The role of chairman is intended to be apolitical and by design the chairman’s four-year term overlaps presidential election years meaning someone serving in the role could serve in two different presidential administrations.
Trump as president has the authority to remove generals and senior officers from their positions and reassign them, but if forced out of a role, officers may not find another opening available to them.
“Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote. “General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
“During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate,” said Trump, repeating praise of the three-star general that he had placed since his first term after meeting him during a tour of U.S. military troops in Iraq.
“It was done in record-setting time, a matter of weeks,” said Trump. “Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”
“Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden,” said Trump. “But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military.”
Defense officials told ABC News that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called both Brown and Franchetti to advise them that they were being removed from their posts. At the time both Brown and Franchetti were traveling outside of Washington, Brown having completed a tour of U.S. military troops on the southern border with Mexico, and on his way to California to link up with Franchetti where both of them were to participate in a conference.
Hegseth later said in a statement that he would request nominations to replace Franchetti; Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s Vice Chief of Staff; and the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Earlier this week both Brown and Franchetti appeared on a list of generals and admirals provided by the Trump administration to Congressional Republicans that Hegseth was considering firing or removing from their positions.
“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him,” said Hegseth in a statement issued after Trump’s announcement.
“The outgoing Chairman, Gen. Charles ‘CQ’ Brown, Jr., USAF, has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service,” said Hegseth. ‘I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country.
“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” he added.
In a statement provided to ABC News Slife said “The President and Secretary of Defense deserve to have generals they trust and the force deserves to have generals who have credibility with our elected and appointed officials.”
“While I’m disappointed to leave under these circumstances, I wouldn’t want the outcome to be any different,” said Slife. “I wish the President, the Secretary, and the Airmen of the USAF the very best as they serve our nation in challenging times.”
The removal of some of the nation’s most senior military officers drew criticism from a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Our military has accepted the principle of civilian control of the military for 236 years. What may seem like an arcane principle to most Americans, is essential to the healthy civil-military relations that drive effective national security decision-making,” retired Gen. George Casey, a former Army Chief of Staff told ABC News in a statement.
“Firing officers for following the directives of the previous civilian leadership of the Department of Defense will undermine that principle and is completely unnecessary. Change the policy, not the people,” he added.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee thanked Brown “for his decades of honorable service to our nation” and expressed confidence that “Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he was “troubled by the nature of these dismissals” and said they appear “to be part of a broader, premeditated campaign by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to purge talented officers for politically charged reasons, which would undermine the professionalism of our military and send a chilling message through the ranks.”
Brown was nominated to be the first Black chief of staff for the Air Force by Trump during his first term, in early 2020.
However, he received criticism from Hegseth in the leadup to his confirmation as defense secretary, as well as from Trump following his 2024 election win.
Both Brown and Franchetti’s names appeared on a list circulating through Republican offices in Congress of top Pentagon officials that Hegseth was said to be considering having removed from their posts.
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said in a November appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show.”
“But any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI woke s— has got to go,” he continued. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it. That’s the only litmus test we care about.”
“We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to C.Q.,” he wrote in his book “War on Warriors.” “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it really doesn’t much matter.”
Hegseth also called into question Franchetti’s qualifications to be the Navy’s top Admiral.
In the same book he wrote: “If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray.”
(WASHINGTON)– Some Republicans are facing pushback in their hometowns as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency make severe cuts across the federal government, both through sweeping employee terminations and looming budget cuts.
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., faced a grilling from his constituents on DOGE’s and Trump’s massive cuts at a town hall Thursday night.
“We are all fricking pissed off about this — you’re going to hear it,” a constituent told McCormick.
McCormick was interrupted multiple times as he tried to defend Trump and Musk’s efforts to overhaul the federal government and the thousands of firings across the United States.
“By and large, the president has great purview over where this money goes,” McCormick said at one point, before the crowd started to shout him down. “You can go and yell whenever you want, but I can’t understand 10 people, let alone 100 people, at once.”
A main point of contention was the firing of hundreds of workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta and roughly 20 miles from the town of Roswell, where the meeting was held.
“It is a fact of budgets, based on whose in control of the government, where that money goes,” McCormick said, prompting more shouting.
“The conservative approach is to take this in a slow and methodical way so that you make sure you do it right, and that’s not happening,” a constituent shouted back.
DOGE wasn’t the only tense topic the Georgia congressman faced. Some voters also brought up Trump’s recent comments on Ukraine.
When asked about Trump claiming Ukraine was responsible for its own invasion, McCormick said, “I want Ukraine to win, and President Trump said he wants Ukraine –,” before he was cut off by more shouting.
Another constituent, who introduced herself as Virginia and said she was a direct descendent of Revolutionary War orator Patrick Henry, said she took issue with a recent Trump post in which he promoted a photo of himself in a crown.
“Tyranny is rising in the White House, and a man has declared himself our king, so I would like to know … what you, congressman, and your fellow congressmen are going to do to reign in the megalomaniac in the White House,” she said, leading to a standing ovation from the crowd.
“When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected,” McCormick responded, to boos and shouts from the audience.
McCormick arguably faced the toughest crowd so far this week, though Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wisc., also heard strong objections from his constituents about Trump’s collaborations with Musk.
“How can we be represented by you, if you don’t have a voice in Congress?” a woman asked Fitzgerald, according to video from WTMJ-TV’s Charles Benson.
“The end result of the fraud and abuse that has been discovered already –” Fitzgerald began answering before being shouted down by the disappointed audience.
“Certainly the discussion in and around DOGE and with the probationary moves that have already been done, they’re going to have be scrutinized at some point,” Fitzgerald said.
In a town hall on Wednesday, Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kansas, was pressed repeatedly on where he would draw the line with Trump and Musk’s federal overhaul.
“Is there anything that Trump and Elon could do that you would not support?” a constituent asked. “Tell me, tell me what you would not support.”
“They’re going through the government in way that’s never been done,” Mann responded, avoiding detailing what he would not support.
Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, also was grilled by his constituents during a virtual town hall Monday night. However, due to the virtual format, Begich’s team was able to maintain control over the town hall, though the livestream received more than 2,000 comments.
“I’m a lifelong Republican,” one constituent named Joel said, according to Alaska Public Radio. “But I am in the majority, I think, with a lot of Americans, a lot of Alaskans, that are really concerned that we have an executive branch that is more than willing to push or remove the guardrails that are on the executive branch, and what we need from Congress and from the courts is to play that checks and balances role.”
“Look, the Congress has certain roles and responsibilities. The executive does as well,” said Begich, who noted he is a member of the “DOGE caucus.”
“And if the Congress or the executive branch steps outside of its constitutionally defined boundaries, the courts step in and realign and say, ‘Hey, you’re out of bounds,'” he added. “To the extent that the executive branch may or may not have exceeded that authority, there will be an opportunity in the courts for that to be challenged, and I would expect many of these challenges to be brought to the Supreme Court.”
Another constituent pressed Begich on this, asking in a post on the livestream, “When are you going to express your authority to hold the president accountable to the Constitution?”
In the wake of the pandemic, many lawmakers haven’t returned to holding traditional in-person town halls, preferring to reach a larger audience virtually while having more control over situations that melt down.
While some voters in these town halls have supported DOGE, even constituents in deep-red districts, who say they’re Republican voters, are upset with what they’re seeing.
“I’m a registered Republican voter, and this administration has gone absolutely off the tracks long ago,” remarked one man on a telephone town hall with Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla. “All of these things really concern me.”
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, noted that some of his constituents were fired then rehired, and he told locals to come to him if they have any problems.
“We had seven researchers that had gotten caught up in the cuts. They’re back to work — we just had to make the calls. … With offices in USDA, there were some cuts — they’re getting restored,” he said. “If you have concerns, please come to me.”
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Oregon, was questioned by a constituent on how the federal firings were carried out.
“I’m all for fiscal responsibility and downsizing the government, and we’ve been through downsizing before. And you can do it in a way that is humane and treats people with dignity and doesn’t fire them on the spot for performance when we all know how hard these people work,” a woman said with tears in her eyes.
Bentz didn’t directly respond to the remark, instead thanking the woman and the audience and encouraging people to share thoughts or comments with his team.
When asked by ABC News’ Mary Bruce on Friday what response he has to those who voted for him who are concerned after his first month in office, Trump touted that he has the highest poll numbers “of any Republican president ever.”
“They like the job that we’re doing. They like the job that Elon is doing. He’s doing something that a lot of people wouldn’t have the courage to do,” he added, refusing to address those who spoke out in the town halls. “So, it’s actually just the opposite. … People are thrilled. They can’t even believe it’s happening.”
Earlier Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about growing criticism from the public on DOGE and Trump’s executive orders, including among conservatives.
“I love how the media takes a few critics when the overwhelming response from the American people is support for what this administration is doing. If you look at the public polling, 70% of Americans, according to CBS, believe that President Trump is delivering on the promises he made,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump’s actions amount to precisely what he campaigned on.
“There should be no secret about the fact that this administration is committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse,” she added. “The President campaigned on that process campaigned on that promise. Americans elected him on that promise, and he’s actually delivering on it. And this is something that Democrats promised they would do for decades. President Trump is just the first president to get it done.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has rescinded a stop-work order it issued earlier this week that cut off funding to organizations that provide pro bono representation and other legal assistance to unaccompanied migrant children, according to a memo obtained by ABC News.
“This letter cancels the Stop Work Order issued February 18,2025,” according to the memo, which was sent to organizations by the Department of Interior.
Earlier this week, the Acacia Center for Justice and its subcontractors were told to halt “all activities” related to the work they do to support migrant youth facing deportation. The organization serves about 26,000 migrant children.
Groups like Acacia and Kids in Need of Defense had called the stop-worker “devastating.”
“To expect a child, you know, especially a five- or six-year-old, to try and figure out their immigration case and how to navigate that system in a language that they don’t speak, it’s virtually impossible,” Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, told ABC News.
There are still thousands of unaccompanied minors representing themselves at immigration courts across the country.
In 2023, only 56% of unaccompanied minors in immigration courts were represented by counsel, according to data from the Department of Justice.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he’s had “good talks” with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin but not with Ukraine as the U.S. pushes negotiations to end the three-year conflict that began when Putin’s forces invaded its sovereign neighbor.
The comment, made at a gathering of Republican and Democratic governors at the White House, comes as Trump ramps up criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I’ve had very good talks with Putin,” Trump said. “And I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine.”
“They don’t have any cards, but they play it tough,” Trump said of Ukraine. “But we’re not we’re not going to let this continue. This war is terrible. It wouldn’t never happened if I were president. But it did happen.”
At a high-level meeting held in Saudi Arabia this week, U.S. and Russian officials agreed to start working together on peace negotiations — marking a seismic diplomatic shift in U.S. foreign policy.
Notably absent from the talks was Ukraine. Zelenskyy criticized the U.S. and Russia for going over Ukraine’s head, and said his country will not accept any agreement they don’t have a hand in negotiating.
Trump responded by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and framed Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader due to the postponement of the country’s 2024 presidential elections until after the war.
The White House has been repeatedly asked if Trump also considers Putin a dictator, but officials, including national security adviser Michael Waltz, have dodged the question.
Zelenskyy pushed back, pointing to polls that show him above 50% and describing Trump’s assertion as parroting Russian “disinformation.”
Trump continued to lash out at Zelenskyy on Friday.
“I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it,” Trump said of Zelenskyy during a interview with Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade.
During the interview, Trump was repeatedly pressed about who was to blame for the war but he sidestepped each time. He at one point seemed to concede that Russia did attack Ukraine, but still blamed Ukraine for not making concessions.
“Every time I say, oh, it’s not Russia’s fault, I always get slammed by the fake news. But I’m telling you, Biden said the wrong things,” Trump said. “Zelenskyy said the wrong things.”
Trump seemed particularly upset about a mineral resources deal that Ukraine rejected. A U.S. official with knowledge of the negotiations said a new version of the proposal has been put on the table.
While Trump has been critical of Zelenskyy, Retired Gen. Keith Kellogg — the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine — praised him as “courageous” after meeting with him Thursday.
“A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine. Extensive and positive discussions with [Zelenskyy] the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his talented national security team,” Kellog wrote on his personal X account.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge has indefinitely adjourned New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ fraud criminal trial after last week’s request from the Department of Justice.
“In light of the Government’s motion and the representations of the parties during the conference, it is clear that trial in this matter will not go forward on April 21,” U.S. District Judge Dale Ho wrote Friday.
Ho also appointed a private attorney – Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy PLLC – to argue as amicus curiae against the government’s motion to dismiss the case.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a jab at President Donald Trump after Canada’s victory over the United States in an international hockey tournament on Thursday.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau wrote on X.
Canada bested the United States 3-2 with an overtime goal to win the 4 Nations Face-Off at TD Garden in Boston. Participating teams included NHL hockey stars from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States.
The highly-anticipated final came after a fiery clash between Canada and the U.S. in an earlier game on Feb. 15 where several fights broke out in the opening seconds of the first period. The U.S. won that game 3-1.
Tensions are boiling over on the diplomatic front between the U.S. and Canada, as Trump frequently says he wants to make Canada the 51st state. He’s repeatedly referred to Trudeau as “governor” instead of prime minister
Trump’s also threatening high tariffs on Canada, the second largest trading partner to the U.S. The implementation of a 25% tariff against Canada and Mexico was paused for a month, pulling the U.S. back from a trade war with its neighbors.
Earlier in the tournament, fans in Montreal booed the U.S. national anthem before Team USA’s first game against Finland.
Trump called Team USA before Thursday night’s championship game.
He said he wanted to “spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State.”
Trump said because of a prior commitment — a gathering of Republican governors in Washington — he couldn’t attend the game in Boston.
“But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting!” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump also shared a video on Truth Social from ESPN showing part of his call to the players.
“Just go out and have a good time tonight. I just want to wish you a lot of luck. You really are a skilled group of people. It’s an honor to talk to you and get out there, and there’s no pressure whatsoever,” Trump told them, prompting some laughs from the players.
(WASHINGTON) — With Hamas saying it will release more hostages this weekend, President Donald Trump has yet to weigh in, as he did last week ahead of the planned Saturday hostage release threatening “all hell is going to break out” if all hostages weren’t freed by his deadline.
Last week, Trump demanded that if Hamas didn’t release “all of the hostages” by noon last Saturday, Feb. 15, Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas might end, although he wasn’t clear whether he was suggesting the U.S. or Israel would act in response.
His deadline came and went, and Hamas released the three hostages that were scheduled to be released on Feb. 15, including one American, according to the original ceasefire agreement, in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Experts told ABC News that Trump’s comments made little or no difference in Saturday’s outcome.
“Trump’s threat wasn’t much of an ultimatum, since Hamas was not about to release all of the hostages on Saturday under any scenario,” said Guy Ziv, associate professor at American University’s School of International Service.
On the heels of this exchange, Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages early Thursday morning, though the Israel Defense Forces later said one of bodies does not belong to a hostage.
What was the context
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say, cancel it and all bets are off, and let hell break out,” Trump said last week. “I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it. But from myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock, and if they’re not, they’re not here, all hell is going to break out.”
The president’s threats came after Hamas unexpectedly announced last week that it was delaying the next hostage release, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that violated the ceasefire deal. He later demanded all nine living Israeli hostages, who were supposed to be released during Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal, be released in the next few days, an Israeli official told ABC News last week.
When asked last week about Trump’s deadline and what he meant with his threat, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff did not go into detail but told “CBS Mornings,” “I would take President Trump at his word. He generally means what he says … so, I don’t think it’s a tactic.”
These exchanges also came a week after the announcement of Trump’s Gaza plan, in which the president expressed his desire to “take over” the Gaza Strip, relocate Palestinians, and redevelop the land. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had responded to this plan, saying “it is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”
The deadline passes
Following the release of the hostages last Saturday, Trump turned to his social media platform to say it was up to Israel on how to move forward.
“Israel will now have to decide what they will do about the 12:00 O’CLOCK, TODAY, DEADLINE imposed on the release of ALL HOSTAGES,” he wrote on Saturday. “The United States will back the decision they make!”
Early Sunday morning, after a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Netanyahu emphasized his “cooperation and coordination” with Trump.
“We have a common strategy,” he said, “including when the gates of hell will be open, as they surely will, if all our hostages are not released until the last one of them.”
On Sunday, Trump told reporters, “I told Bibi, you do whatever you want because, you know my statement was they got to come back. Now, the reason I made that statement was because they said they weren’t gonna deliver — they were not going to deliver the people that they said they were going to deliver, that they agreed to deliver.”
“When I made the statement, they delivered everybody, plus an American,” Trump touted, appearing to take credit. In reality, the three hostages released Saturday were part of the ongoing ceasefire deal, including the release of American Sagui Dekel Chen on Feb. 15.
National security adviser Mike Waltz repeated the president’s sentiment during a press briefing Thursday.
“And when President Trump sent a very clear message across the Middle East, but particularly to Hamas, that there would be all hell to pay, we suddenly saw a breakthrough,” Waltz said.
But Trump’s claims should not be considered the final word, says one expert.
“World leaders have learned to heavily discount the words of Donald Trump,” Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told ABC News. Katulis noted additional examples of the president’s past comments that he says are filled with “hot air,” including Trump’s assertion that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in one day.
Threatening ‘hell’ for months
In fact, Trump has been threatening Hamas with “hell” for months.
In early December, Trump wrote on his social media platform that “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” if hostages were not released prior to his Inauguration day, and that “those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”
“If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East,” Trump repeated in January when asked about the status of the hostage deal.
“All hell will break out,” he continued. “I don’t have to say any more, but that’s what it is.”
Trump’s language has been echoed by aides and supporters.
Appearing on Fox News in December, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller warned, “I would take him literally at his word. They will have hell to pay.”
Though he declined to go into specifics, Miller was confident that the president was “very serious on this one.”
One day before Trump’s inauguration, House Speaker Mike Johnson said “there will be hell to pay for Hamas if they violate these terms.”
Experts remain skeptical of Trump’s threats, despite their repetition throughout the past few months.
“The real hell that’s broken loose is the hell of confusion that comes from Trump’s erratic public statements here. It serves really no purpose,” Katulis said, arguing that “the real threat doesn’t come from Trump’s mouth, it comes from the weapons and bombs that Israel has.”
“Some have likened Trump’s coercive diplomacy to what [President Richard] Nixon called his ‘Madman Theory,'” Ziv said. “Trump wants other leaders to believe that he’s willing to do anything, that nothing can restrain him from achieving his objectives.”
