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Texas Land Commissioner Unveils Plan To Construct Deportation Facilities

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Construction continues on new border wall system project near Yuma, AZ. Recently constructed border wall near Yuma, Arizona on June 3, 2020. CBP photo by Jerry Glaser.

Starr County, TX – Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham has announced the launch of the Jocelyn Initiative, a plan to lease state land for the construction of deportation facilities aimed at addressing violent criminal activity. The initiative, named in honor of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was raped and murdered by two illegal immigrants, is ready to begin implementation immediately upon President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration.

“My office has already identified several state properties suitable for this effort,” Buckingham stated during the announcement. “We are prepared to act on day one of the Trump presidency to ensure the necessary facilities are in place.”

A Personal and Symbolic Ceremony

The announcement took place on a newly purchased 1,400-acre tract in Starr County, acquired by the state in October as part of Texas’s broader border security strategy. During the ceremony, Jocelyn’s family joined Buckingham in laying a symbolic panel of the state-funded border wall. In an emotional moment, family members were invited to install a section of the wall themselves, commemorating their beloved daughter’s memory.

Expanded Vision for State Land

The Starr County property, already designated for border wall construction, is now being considered for additional infrastructure, including deportation facilities. Buckingham highlighted the strategic importance of the site, calling it an ideal location for “processing, detention and coordination of what will be the largest deportation of violent criminals in our nation’s history.”

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“I am 100% on board with the Trump administration‘s pledge to get these criminals out of our country, and we are more than happy to offer our resources to facilitate deportations of these violent criminals,” she added. “We’re happy to make this offer and hope they take us up on it.”

MyHighPlains.com continues:

Buckingham described the plot as “essentially farmland,” and “easy to build on.” Her office did not specify how much the state paid to acquire it.

Tom Homan, President-elect Trump’s pick to serve as “border czar,” told Fox News that the incoming administration expects to use the gifted land as part of its deportation program. He did not go into details about any plans.

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Homan is scheduled to visit the Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday. He will join Gov. Greg Abbott to present holiday meals to National Guard troops serving along the border. Commissioner Buckingham announced a “border wall construction kick-off” on the newly acquired state land in Starr County on the same day.

The Texas legislature is also preparing to take state border enforcement even further. State Sen. Bob Hall, for example, has filed bills to establish the “Texas Department of Homeland Security” and to authorize the Texas Department of Public Safety to deport migrants — measures the Biden administration challenged as unconstitutional.

These initiatives highlight a rising trend among border states, especially Texas and Arizona, to take charge of immigration enforcement. However, Trump’s approach might reduce the need for states to assert control, as the federal government steps up its efforts.

Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News

Democrat Senator Openly Backs Trump’s Iran Proposal

Gage Skidmore Flickr

President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States and Israel have already destroyed Iran’s nuclear program and warned that Tehran would face renewed military action if it attempts to rebuild its weapons capabilities. His remarks came as new reports allege the Iranian regime is pursuing chemical and biological warheads for its ballistic missiles.

Speaking at Mar-a-Lago alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump delivered a blunt warning to Tehran over its nuclear and missile ambitions.

“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump said. “We’ll knock the hell out of them.” He added that Iran would be “much smarter” to pursue a deal.

Trump framed Iran’s defeat as central to restoring stability in the Middle East, crediting joint U.S.-Israeli military action with fundamentally shifting the regional balance of power.

“We just won a big war together,” he said. “If we didn’t beat Iran, you wouldn’t have had peace in the Middle East. We wiped it out.”

When asked whether he would support further Israeli military action if Iran continues advancing its missile or nuclear programs, Trump responded without hesitation.

“If they continue with the missiles — yes,” he said. “The nuclear — absolutely.”

Pressed on whether he would support efforts to overthrow Iran’s ruling regime, Trump declined, while pointing to the country’s internal turmoil and economic collapse.

“I’m not going to talk about overthrow of a regime,” he said. “But they have tremendous inflation. Their economy is busted.”

Trump also noted that widespread protests inside Iran are frequently met with deadly force by the government.

The president’s comments followed a report Sunday from Iran International alleging that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is accelerating work on unconventional missile payloads, including chemical and biological weapons. The report cited unnamed military and security sources.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) echoed Trump’s hardline stance in a Monday post on X, saying he would support military strikes to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“Iran can’t ever develop a nuclear weapon,” Fetterman wrote.

“Fully supported the strike earlier this year. Fully support any future strikes to damage or destroy their nuclear ambitions,” added Fetterman, a vocal supporter of Israel.


TikTok Signs Trump-Backed Deal With US Investors To Avert Ban

By The White House - https://www.flickr.com/photos/202101414@N05/54581054338/, Public Domain,

TikTok has secured a last-minute lifeline.

The social media giant reached a binding agreement Thursday with a Trump-backed group of U.S. and global investors, restructuring its American operations in an effort to avoid a nationwide ban and remain available to its 170 million U.S. users.

Under the agreement with its Chinese parent ByteDance, the hugely popular social media app will shift control of its core U.S. operations to a newly created joint venture majority-owned by American investors.

TikTok’s U.S. business will be placed under a newly created company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, majority-owned by American investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. ByteDance will retain a 19.9% stake — the maximum allowed under U.S. law.

The new entity will control sensitive areas like user data, algorithms, and content moderation, while ByteDance continues to handle advertising and e-commerce through separate units. Oracle will act as a trusted security partner, hosting U.S. data and monitoring compliance.

The move comes after years of mounting pressure from Washington. A 2024 bipartisan law forced ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban, putting the platform on borrowed time after repeated deadline extensions.

Trump and other supporters argue the deal protects national security without wiping out one of the country’s most influential tech platforms. Critics remain skeptical, warning that ByteDance’s continued involvement could still pose risks.

At the heart of the TikTok debate is China.

ByteDance operates under Chinese laws that can force companies to turn over user data, intensifying fears in Washington that information on millions of Americans could — or may already — be in Beijing’s hands.

National security officials and lawmakers warn that such data could have military value, raising concerns about potential access by the Chinese Communist Party.

Mediaite continues:

The White House has confirmed that Oracle, co-founded by Trump ally Larry Ellison, will license a copy of TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm and expand its existing role managing the data of the app’s 170 million U.S. users. A potential ban was hinged on national security concerns.

In September, Trump said he had spoken directly with China’s leader, adding: “I had a very good talk with President Xi [Jinping]” and “he gave us the go ahead.” A month later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that Washington and Beijing had “reached a final deal on TikTok.”

During his first term, Trump threatened to ban TikTok outright in 2020. Congress later passed legislation forcing a sale or shutdown over security fears, which former President Joe Biden signed into law in April 2024. The ban was due to take effect in January 2025, but was repeatedly delayed by Trump as negotiations continued.

Not everyone is on board, however. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) panned the deal in a post on BlueSky late Thursday: “First Paramount/CBS and now TikTok. Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies. Americans deserve to know if the president struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok.”

If regulators sign off, the deal is expected to close by Jan. 22, 2026. TikTok says users shouldn’t notice any immediate changes — but scrutiny of the platform is far from over.

READ NEXT: Trump Immediately Suspends Controversial Program Following Shocking Incidents

Iran Rebukes Trump Demand While Announcing New Supreme Leader

By The White House - https://www.flickr.com/photos/202101414@N05/54581054338/, Public Domain,

Iran has selected a new supreme leader to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following his death in a U.S.-Israeli strike, while rejecting demands from President Donald Trump to have any role in the leadership selection.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts — the powerful body of senior clerics responsible for choosing the country’s supreme leader — announced Sunday that Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s 56-year-old son, will succeed his father.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, reporting from Tel Aviv, said the decision came just over a week after the killing of Ali Khamenei during the opening phase of the conflict with Israel.

“This is just in from Iran’s Assembly of Experts,” Diamond said. “This is the body of senior Iranian clerics responsible for electing the next supreme leader, and they have now chosen, just over a week after the assassination of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his son Mojtaba Khamenei as his successor.”

Diamond noted that Mojtaba Khamenei is widely seen as a hardline figure with close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“He is known for having close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and his selection will largely be viewed as a continuation of his father’s rule,” Diamond said. “This is quite a hard-line stance for the Assembly of Experts to be choosing as the next supreme leader of Iran.”

According to the report, Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the same strike that killed his father. The attack also killed his wife.

His appointment comes amid escalating tensions with the United States and Israel, both of which have sharply criticized Iran’s leadership.

President Trump had previously dismissed the possibility of Mojtaba Khamenei becoming supreme leader, calling him a “lightweight” in an interview with Axios and saying such a choice would be unacceptable.

Iranian officials, however, have firmly rejected any suggestion that Washington could influence the selection.

Speaking Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the choice of supreme leader is strictly an internal matter for Iran.

When asked whether Iran would allow Trump any role in choosing the country’s next leader, Araghchi responded bluntly.

“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs,” he said. “This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader. They have already elected the Assembly of Experts, and the Assembly of Experts will do the job. It is only the business of the Iranian people and nobody else’s business.”

Araghchi also pushed back on Trump’s earlier demand for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

“This is what he asked the previous time in June, when Israel started to attack us,” Araghchi said. “President Trump used the same phrase, ‘unconditional surrender.’ That was the tweet he made. And that didn’t happen.”

“We resisted, and after 12 days Israelis asked for an unconditional ceasefire,” he continued. “So we never give up, we never surrender, and we will continue to resist as long as it takes. We are defending our territory, our people, and our dignity. And our dignity is not for sale.”

Even as Iran moves forward with its new leadership, Israeli officials have issued stark warnings that the country’s next leader will also become a target.

Days before the leadership announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that anyone appointed to lead Iran’s ruling regime could face assassination if they continue policies hostile to Israel and its allies.

“Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” Katz wrote in a post on X.

“It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides,” he added.

Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for such action as part of Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Iran, known as Operation Lion’s Roar.

“The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to prepare and act by all means to carry out the mission as an integral part of the objectives of Operation Lion’s Roar,” Katz said.

He added that Israel will continue coordinating with the United States to weaken the Iranian regime and create conditions that could lead to political change inside the country.

Iran’s Sick New Threat Targets Melania And Barron Trump

First Lady Melania Trump participates in the Senate Spouses Luncheon at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, May 21,2025. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

Iranian propaganda has crossed another sinister line — this time placing First Lady Melania Trump and her 20-year-old son, Barron, in its crosshairs.

Tasnim News Agency, an outlet closely associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, released a disturbing video Monday encouraging attacks against the president’s wife and threatening that Barron could be next.

The roughly two-minute clip opens with a bloody image of Melania alongside the words, “Where to Kill Melania?!” It then purports to track her movements through New York City, displaying footage of her motorcade and making claims about her security arrangements and personal routines, according to The Times.

The video calls on supporters of the Islamic Republic and so-called “global freedom fighters” to take action against the First Lady.

It closes with an even more chilling warning: “This is just the beginning. Barron Trump, wait for us.”

Russian state television outlet RT helped spread the propaganda on social media, claiming that the video revealed routes and routines using information obtained from “anonymous security networks,” Mediaite reported.

Much of the material, however, appears to have been compiled from publicly available information and wrapped in menacing graphics intended to make the threat appear more sophisticated.

The Secret Service confirmed Tuesday that it is examining the video.

Nate Herring, an agency spokesman, told Newsweek that the Secret Service investigates “anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees.”

“Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence,” Herring added, according to The Independent.

Both Melania and Barron receive full-time Secret Service protection, and the Trump family’s residences are heavily secured, according to the New York Post.

Neither the White House nor the First Lady’s office had publicly responded to the video as of Tuesday morning.

Fox News host Mark Levin condemned the clip after it began circulating online.

“The Iranian regime continues to threaten the assassination of Trump family members,” Levin wrote.

The threat is not an isolated piece of Tehran’s increasingly grotesque propaganda campaign.

Days earlier, billboards appeared along a highway in Tehran depicting fabricated images of Melania, Barron and Ivanka Trump as corpses. The word “KILLED” was splashed across the images alongside the warning, “Hey, terrorist! Get ready to die.”

Another display placed portraits of President Trump, his wife and all five of his children above American flag-draped coffins under the message “Blood for Blood.” Other regime-linked artwork has depicted Trump dead or staring down the sights of a rifle, the Post reported.

Some Iranian propaganda has veered into the bizarre, including AI-generated videos featuring Lego-like versions of Trump and other world leaders. But the regime’s history of pursuing assassination plots on American soil means its latest threat cannot be dismissed as another crude cartoon.

In March, a federal jury convicted Asif Merchant, an Iranian intelligence operative who entered the United States to arrange political assassinations on behalf of the IRGC.

Merchant contacted people he believed could serve as hired killers, discussed possible attacks and paid a $5,000 advance before being arrested. The supposed hitmen were undercover law enforcement officers.

The Justice Department said Merchant understood that Trump could be the eventual target of the plot, which was intended to avenge the 2020 killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.

“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump,” then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said following Merchant’s conviction, according to the Justice Department.

Trump has said Iran considers him its top target and has publicly warned Tehran that any attempt on his life would trigger overwhelming retaliation.

“I’m the No. 1, because they’re scum,” Trump told reporters earlier this month. “That’s the way they act.”

The president later wrote that the U.S. military had received orders to “completely decimate and destroy” Iran if the regime attempted to assassinate him.

The latest threat emerged as Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the Iran war and possible negotiations with Tehran.

Even as Trump considers giving diplomacy another chance, the Iranian regime appears determined to send a different message — one aimed directly at his family.

MTG Accuses Trump Of Implementing ‘Manufactured Crisis’ To Cancel Midterm Elections

Marjorie Taylor Greene -Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, via Wikimedia Commons

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said Sunday that she could envision President Donald Trump declaring a “national emergency” tied to Iran or another crisis, responding to speculation that such a move could affect the upcoming midterm elections.

The comments came after conservative podcaster Shannon Joy posted on X, “Trump doesn’t seem to care about the midterms. Who wants to bet he’ll declare a ‘national emergency’ because of Iran (or some other manufactured crisis) and try to cancel the elections in November?”

Greene replied, “Yeah, I could see it. INSANE.”

Her response follows a recent public break with the president over U.S. military action against Iran. Greene has sharply criticized the strikes in multiple social media posts, arguing they run counter to the “America First” platform that helped elect Trump.

“The Trump admin actually asked in a poll how many casualties voters were willing to accept in a war with Iran???” Greene wrote Saturday on X. “How about ZERO you bunch of sick f*cking liars. We voted for America First and ZERO wars.”

In another post, she added: “This is NOT freeing the Iranian people!!! This is murdering their children!!! WTF are you insane people doing??? AMERICA DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS!!!”

The exchange comes amid debate within Republican circles about the administration’s decision to strike Iran. Critics have questioned the timing, noting that Trump said in June that prior U.S. strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

In an interview Sunday with Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, Trump defended the latest action, saying that without U.S. and Israeli missile strikes, Iran “would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks.”

However, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) offered a more measured assessment during an appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

“I don’t have present-day intelligence on what progress they had made toward rebuilding nuclear weapons since we bombed their facilities,” Cruz said. “I have no indication that they were anywhere close to getting nuclear weapons, because our bombing was devastating… That’s one of the reasons I urged President Trump, ‘Now is the time’” to strike.

The midterm elections, scheduled for November, are expected to be closely contested, with some political analysts projecting potential Republican losses in key districts. Greene’s comments reflect broader concerns among some conservatives about U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts and their potential domestic political implications.

A January report from Roll Call cited a prior Oval Office meeting in which Trump discussed elections during wartime. According to the report, during an Aug. 18 meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the conditions required to restart elections in Ukraine.

“So you say, during the war, you can’t have elections,” Trump mused, according to the report. “So you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. I wonder what the fake news would say to that.”

Report: Obama Admin. ‘Manufactured’ Intelligence To Establish Russian Collusion Narrative

Gage Skidmore Flickr

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday released a cache of newly declassified documents that she says contain “overwhelming evidence” showing how the Obama administration laid the foundation for the yearslong investigation into alleged collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia—despite intelligence assessments that contradicted key claims.

The declassified material includes a Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) prepared on December 8, 2016, by the Department of Homeland Security in coordination with the CIA, FBI, NSA, State Department, and others. That report stated explicitly: “Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent US election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure.”

The PDB also confirmed that although Russian-linked hackers likely compromised a voter registration database in Illinois and attempted similar efforts in other states, those actions were deemed “highly unlikely” to have changed any state’s official vote results. The assessment emphasized that the real aim appeared to be psychological—undermining confidence in the electoral system—rather than directly influencing the outcome.

Earlier intelligence assessments leading up to the 2016 election echoed this view, consistently stating that Russia was “probably not trying to influence the election by using cyber means.”

Internal FBI communications show that the bureau raised concerns about the December 8 PDB, drafting a formal dissent and urging the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to delay publication. The brief, originally scheduled for release on December 9, was held back following “new guidance,” according to redacted internal ODNI emails.

A White House Situation Room meeting convened that same day—December 9, 2016—brought together senior national security officials to address the sensitive issue. A source familiar with the meeting confirmed that the unpublished version of the PDB clearly stated there was no Russian impact on the election outcome through cyberattacks.

Despite these internal conclusions, top Obama-era officials allegedly leaked conflicting information to the press, suggesting Russia had interfered in the election and possibly swayed the outcome—a narrative that helped ignite the Trump-Russia investigation.

The declassified documents also point to the now-discredited Steele Dossier as a key influence in shaping the subsequent Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). Officials acknowledged that some of the information used in that assessment was “manufactured” or “deemed not credible” at the time it was circulated.

Further, sources told Fox News Digital that key agencies—such as the FBI and NSA—had expressed “low confidence” in attributing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) email leaks to the Russian government, even as the ICA concluded otherwise.

Gabbard characterized the entire episode as a “treasonous conspiracy,” accusing senior Obama-era officials of weaponizing intelligence and launching a coordinated campaign to delegitimize Donald Trump’s presidency

“This is not a partisan issue,” Gabbard told Fox News Digital. “The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government. Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup.”

She warned that the actions of these officials represent “an egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution,” which she believes undermines the integrity of the democratic system itself.

Gabbard and ODNI officials indicated that further investigation is ongoing and that more declassified materials may be released in the coming months.

Read:

Kash Patel Reportedly Planning Rare Russia Trip For Secretive FSB Talks

Kremlin.ru, via Wikimedia Commons

FBI Director Kash Patel is reportedly preparing for a rare trip into the heart of Russia — one that could put America’s top federal lawman across the table from the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

Patel is expected to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg on Oct. 14 and 15, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plans who spoke with Politico.

“His host is likely to be the FSB, the Russian security service that is heir to the Soviet-era KGB,” the U.S. official told the outlet.

The purpose of the trip has not been disclosed, and it remains unclear which Russian officials Patel intends to meet. There has also been no indication whether a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is under consideration.

The FBI and Justice Department did not respond to Politico’s requests for comment, while the White House referred questions about the trip to the bureau.

The Kremlin did little to clear up the mystery Tuesday.

“These kinds of visits usually happen behind closed doors,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters while declining to confirm or deny Patel’s travel plans, according to The Moscow Times.

The reported visit would carry particularly high stakes because Patel could be meeting with the same security service his bureau has publicly identified as an active threat to Americans.

In a June warning, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Russian intelligence actors were conducting an ongoing phishing campaign against high-value targets. The agencies said FSB officers and others working for Russian military services were targeting current and former U.S. government officials, military personnel, political figures and journalists.

The campaign allowed Russian operatives to take over messaging accounts and potentially access victims’ private conversations, according to the FBI and CISA advisory.

That creates a striking backdrop for Patel’s expected talks: The FBI may need Russian cooperation on terrorism, cybercrime and other international investigations even while treating the expected host of the trip as a hostile intelligence organization.

If Patel makes the journey, he would become the first sitting FBI director known to visit Russia since Robert Mueller traveled to Moscow in 2013.

Mueller’s unannounced trip came shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing and included discussions with Russian officials about the investigation and security cooperation ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Patel’s history makes the planned visit even more politically combustible.

Before taking over the FBI, Patel rose to prominence as a House Intelligence Committee aide investigating the origins and conduct of the bureau’s Trump-Russia probe. He has repeatedly denounced the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia as the “Russiagate hoax.”

The trip is also being planned as relations between Washington and Moscow remain strained over the war in Ukraine and lawmakers push for tougher economic penalties against Putin’s government.

Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have made repeated attempts to negotiate an end to the war, but Russia has continued to demand Ukrainian territorial concessions that Kyiv has rejected, according to The Kyiv Independent.

For now, the biggest question surrounding Patel’s journey remains unanswered: What exactly does America’s FBI director expect to accomplish behind closed doors with one of the country’s most powerful adversaries?

Trump’s Patience With Zelensky Evaporates As White House Issues Dire Warning

By President Of Ukraine - https://www.flickr.com/photos/165930373@N06/54169325552/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156221279

President Trump’s growing frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to a head on Wednesday. At the center of the tension: a statement from Zelensky demanding full Russian withdrawal — including from Crimea — before even sitting down for peace talks.

While the Ukrainian leader remains steadfast in his refusal to negotiate without a complete rollback of Russian control, critics argue that this kind of rigid posture may be stalling real progress and prolonging the war’s human cost.

The Trump team has been exploring more pragmatic solutions to break the deadlock — one of which includes floating the idea of formally recognizing Crimea as Russian territory. It’s a bold play meant to strip away one of the biggest barriers to getting both sides to the table.

As the New York Post explains, Trump’s dire warning to the Ukrainian president included a particularly ominous comment: settle for a negotiated peace or risk “losing the entire country.”

Trump, 78, was responding to Zelensky telling reporters Tuesday that “Ukraine will not legally recognize the [Russian] occupation of Crimea” — a key part of a US-proposed peace plan under discussion in London Wednesday, and a condition that has long been a red line for Kyiv.

“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” the president seethed on Truth Social. 

“Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”

Trump a decade ago criticized Obama for not intervening when Russia annexed Crimea. Kyiv has been working since 2014 to get its territory back and expel Russians from eastern Ukraine.

In a bid to end the grinding, trench-style war in Ukraine, the Trump administration is preparing to upend more than eight decades of U.S. foreign policy.

“There’s a doctrine out there called the Welles Declaration, that goes back to 1940, that says the United States will not acknowledge the occupation of a foreign land by another nation,” a senior administration official told the Post. “That’s on the table.”

The Welles Doctrine, first invoked to condemn the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, has long guided America’s refusal to recognize territorial seizures. Reversing or softening that position would mark a historic shift — one aimed at pressuring Ukraine and Russia toward a negotiated ceasefire.

The move, while politically explosive, is rooted in realpolitik. Crimea has been effectively under Russian control since 2014, and there’s an argument to be made that clinging to pre-2014 maps may be standing in the way of saving lives today.

Predictably, the proposal sparked outrage in Kyiv. For Ukrainians, Crimea isn’t just land — it’s a Maryland size chunk of heritage, identity and pride.

But an important question remains: At what point does principled resistance become strategic blindness?

READ NEXT: Fox News Star UNLOADS On Democrat Rep In Explosive Clash [WATCH]

Report: Senator Accuses Secret Service Of Hiding Information To Ensure Trump’s Safety

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Is the Secret Service hiding something?

Sen. Josh Hawley sent letters to U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leaders on Wednesday detailing a new whistleblower claim that Secret Service leadership is trying to hide the level of protection given to former President Donald Trump.

The letter to USSS Director Ronald Rowe and DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari alleges a whistleblower’s claims that government auditors are being denied access to certain Trump campaign events in an effort to hide these apparent protection shortfalls for the former president.

“You of course have publicly stated that former President Trump is receiving ‘the highest level of Secret Service protection’ and that ‘he’s getting everything.’ This new whistleblower information troublingly contradicts your public statements,” Hawley wrote in his letter to Rowe.

In his letter to Cuffari, Hawley said the new whistleblower allegations say “Secret Service headquarters blocked several of your auditors from accessing recent Trump campaign events.”

“The Secret Service whistleblower alleges that the denial was in order to hide the fact that the former president is not receiving a consistent level of protective assets for all of his engagements,” Hawley wrote. “[Y]ou should be aware of these allegations, which indicate that the Secret Service is not in fact cooperating with your auditors and is instead painting a false picture.”

Since the July 13 assassination attempt against the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania, Hawley has been collecting whistleblower claims to expose potential USSS deficits and errors.

Hawley released a wide-ranging whistleblower report detailing various allegations against the agency.

Hawley found a “compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding,” the report read.