Trump’s reckless leap into “Phase Two” of his peace plan ignores the blood on Gaza’s streets and the empty promises behind every handshake in Cairo’s spotlight
MeidasTouch Network and Michael Cohen
Oct 15
There’s an old saying: “You can’t build a house on quicksand.” Yet here we are again, watching President Trump do what he does best: declare victory before the game even starts, slap a “mission accomplished” sticker on a still-burning problem, and sell it as the greatest deal in the history of deals. This time, it’s not a real estate pitch or a campaign; it’s something far deadlier. Trump has declared “Phase Two” of his so-called 20-point peace plan for the Middle East has begun, even though Phase One—if we can call it that—is hanging together by little more than rhetoric, wishful thinking, and a shaky ceasefire.
Let’s start with the obvious question: Why the rush? Why declare progress where there’s barely stability? Why pretend that Hamas is ready to disarm when they’re literally executing people in the streets of Gaza as we speak? Because for Trump, optics always outrun outcomes. He’s not driven by results; he’s addicted to the headline. And “Trump Moves to Phase Two of Peace Plan” reads a hell of a lot better than “Hamas Executes 33 Amid Ceasefire Chaos.”
According to Reuters, Hamas has killed at least 33 people since the ceasefire went into effect last week—seven of them dragged into Gaza City square yesterday, bound, forced to their knees, and shot from behind in front of a crowd. That’s not peace. That’s not reconciliation. That’s the raw assertion of control by a militant, terrorist group that’s already filling the power vacuum left behind as Israel steps back. Yet Trump, from the comfort of the White House podium, announces we’re moving into the “next phase” of his peace plan, as if this is a board game and not a war-torn hellscape.
Here’s the hard truth: you don’t rush peace. You build it—slowly, deliberately, on a foundation of accountability, trust, and enforceable structure. Right now, there’s none of that. No international security force on the ground. No apolitical governing body in place. No clear document that defines what “disarmament” even means. Instead, Trump’s team is improvising foreign policy like it’s an episode of The Apprentice: Gaza Edition, with real lives hanging in the balance.
Even seasoned negotiators like Ghaith al-Omari have warned that Hamas is already reestablishing control on the ground—politically, militarily, and soon, socially. They’ll be the ones clearing rubble, reopening schools, distributing aid—because someone has to, and the international community hasn’t stepped in fast enough. The longer they run the show, the harder they are to dislodge. Which means that by skipping ahead to “Phase Two,” Trump isn’t dismantling Hamas; he’s legitimizing their grip on power.
And let’s be clear about this so-called peace plan: it’s got no teeth. No legal framework. No enforcement mechanism. Just threats and sound bites. Trump says, “If Hamas refuses to disarm, we will disarm them.” We who? The U.S. has already ruled out sending troops. The proposed International Security Force doesn’t exist yet. The United Nations hasn’t signed off on it. Even nations like Indonesia and Malaysia, who expressed willingness to contribute, have made it clear they’ll only do so under a U.N. Security Council resolution—which Trump’s team hasn’t even pursued. And yet, not one of the leaders who stood shoulder to shoulder on that stage in Egypt for the triumphant photo op seems to have thought this through. What happens when the applause fades and someone actually has to send troops from their respective countries into Gaza to monitor or control Hamas? Are Egypt, Qatar, or the UAE truly ready to risk their soldiers’ lives in a conflict that’s already spiraling? Or was that image in Cairo just another piece of political theater—unity for the cameras, and denial for the disaster waiting to unfold?
This isn’t a peace process. It’s a press release masquerading as strategy.
When Trump boasts about the release of the last 20 living hostages as proof that his approach is working, he ignores the gruesome reality: those hostages were traded for time and control. Hamas used the ceasefire to regroup, rearm, and reassert its dominance. They’re not disarming; they’re reorganizing. And as Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s senior advisor, admitted, “The challenges ahead are not going to be easy.” Translation: We’re barely holding this thing together, and Trump just hit fast-forward.
The disarmament question alone is a minefield. What exactly counts as “heavy weapons”? Rockets? Grenades? Automatic rifles? Hamas might give up one category while keeping the others, turning compliance into an illusion. And once again, the ambiguity plays right into their hands. Without precise definitions and an on-the-ground enforcement presence, Trump’s plan is a house of cards—one strong gust away from collapse.
It’s also painfully clear that no one’s thought through what happens next. If Hamas refuses to cooperate, does Israel resume military operations? Who secures the newly “liberated” zones? Who governs them? How are civilians protected? These are not small details; they’re the difference between stability and chaos. Between life and death.
And then there’s the human cost. Every rushed decision, every half-baked announcement, every politically timed declaration of “progress” risks lives—Israeli and Palestinian alike. The people on the ground don’t need more speeches from Washington. They need security, order, and a credible plan that doesn’t crumble the moment it’s tested.
But Trump doesn’t do nuance. He does speed, spectacle, and self-congratulation. He’s turning one of the most fragile ceasefires in modern history into a political talking point—a photo op for a peace plan that doesn’t exist on paper, let alone in practice.
Hamas is executing people in public squares, parading corpses, and confiscating aid meant for civilians—and we’re talking about “Phase Two”? That’s not leadership. That’s lunacy. It’s like trying to perform surgery before you’ve sterilized the instruments.
The lesson here is simple but dangerous: rushing peace is a form of violence in itself. Because when you move too fast, you leave the truth behind. You hand power to the very forces you claim to be dismantling. And when the dust settles—if it ever does—the only thing left standing may be the same extremists you promised to disarm.
Trump’s “Phase Two” isn’t peace; it’s denial dressed up as diplomacy. And if history is any guide, the cost of his impatience will be paid not in applause, but in blood.
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Donald Trump and the GOP have been wrecking the federal workforce since the moment they took power, slashing the jobs of tens of thousands of FAA air traffic controllers, Forest Service firefighters, FDA and Agriculture food and drug inspectors, NOAA climate scientists and NIH cancer doctors and researchers trying to cure breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and malignant narcissistic personality disorder.
Now, MAGA is shutting down the entire government rather than cancel their savage cuts to the health care of our people.
Democrats say hell no to the GOP health care debacle and the GOP government shutdown. .
We won’t let Republicans throw millions of Americans off their health insurance through the largest-ever cuts to Medicaid just to hand another gigantic tax break to the rampaging billionaire class.
We won’t let them increase health insurance premiums by 75 percent, on average, for over 20 million Americans who get their health care through the Affordable Care Act while dramatically increasing everyone else’s insurance premiums too.
And we definitely won't let them prolong this obscenely wasteful government shutdown just so they can keep refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva, our new Colleague elected from Arizona, simply because she provides the key 218th signature on the discharge petition that will enable us to release the Epstein files in their entirety.
This is a dangerous moment for our country, but people have the power in America if we’re brave enough to use it, and I’ve never felt more sure that the forces of democracy and freedom can prevail in this fight. It’s an honor to fight by your side through the many battles ahead, and I remain grateful to you for your resolve and enduring love of country.
The leftist Colombian president retorted that "US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters."
By Brett Wilkins
The United States carried out another deadly attack on a boat it claimed was being used by a left-wing Colombian revolutionary group to transport drugs in the Caribbean Sea, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump alleged without evidence that Columbia’s president “is an illegal drug dealer.”
Hegseth said the strike, which took place on Friday, targeted “a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a designated terrorist organization.”
The ELN is Colombia’s last-standing far-left guerrilla group. Founded in 1964, the group fought to liberate Colombia from longtime right-wing rule, end foreign influence—especially from the United States—and achieve social justice and equality for the poor. ELN has been accused of using proceeds from drug trafficking to fund its insurgency.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth said without offering evidence. “There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike.”
“These cartels are the al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security, and poison our people,” the defense secretary added. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like al-Qaeda.”
Hegseth’s announcement followed a post by Trump on his Truth Social network calling leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro “an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs.”
Trump offered no evidence to back his baseless claim. The US itself has a long history of involvement in the international drug trade, from American capitalists profiting immensely from opium trafficking in the 19th century to the Central Intelligence Agency working with narcotrafficking anti-communist groups in Southeast Asia and Central America during the Cold War, helping to fuel first the heroin and later crack cocaine epidemics in the United States.
The US president further alleged that drugs have “become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long-term rip off of America.”
Trump added:
AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA. The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc. Petro, a low-rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.
According toThe Associated Press, Colombia received an estimated $230 million in US aid for the budget year that ended on September 30.
Trump has ordered attacks on at least seven alleged drug-running boats without providing concrete evidence to support his claims. At least 29 people have been killed in the attacks.
In a series of posts on the social media site X, Petro said that “US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” repeating claims that some victims of the US strikes, including Thursday’s, were fishermen.
“I respect the history, culture, and people of the USA,” Petro wrote in a subsequent post. “They are not my enemies, nor do I feel them as such. The problem is with Trump, not with the USA.”
Refuting Trump’s accusation that he has “done nothing to stop” drug trafficking, Petro noted that “we have reduced the coca leaf crop growth rate to almost 0%. In past governments, there were years with nearly 100% annual growth. Today, half of the total coca leaf crop area has crops that have been abandoned for three years.”
The Trump administrationsaid Thursday that survivors of one recent strike, a Colombian and an Ecuadorean, would be repatriated to their respective countries, possibly as a way to skirt concerns over the legality of the attacks.
On Thursday, Hegseth said that US Southern Command chief Adm. Alvin Holsey—who is overseeing the boat attacks—will step down at the end of the year. Holsey’s resignation reportedly stems from concerns over the strikes.
“If Commander Alvin has resigned for refusing to be complicit in the murder of Caribbean civilians by US missiles deliberately launched against them from comfortable offices, I consider him a hero and a true officer of the armies of the Americas,” Petro said in response to the news. “I said in New York, on one of its streets, that I asked the officers of the US military forces not to aim their weapons at humanity.”
The Trump administration revoked Petro’s US visa following his speech.
“I believe that Commander Alvin has proven himself to be a man of worth by refusing to aim his weapons at humanity. Perhaps Commander Alvin does not know it, but he is a true officer of the armies of Washington and Bolívar,” Petro added, referring to George Washington and the great South American liberator Simón Bolívar.
On his first day back in the White House in January, Trump signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last month, the president reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat drug cartels abroad, sparking fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US attacks, invasions, occupations, and other interventions since the issuance of the dubious Monroe Doctrine in 1823.
Trump has also deployed a small armada of naval warships off the coast of Venezuela, which has endured more than a century of Washington’s imperialist meddling, raising fears of yet another US war of choice and regime change.
Many social media users had the same reaction to Douglass' resignation: "Good riddance!"
By Brett Wilkins
Vermont state Sen. Sam Douglass is set to step down Monday after being exposed as a participant in a Young Republican group chat in which members—including at least one Trump administration official—exchanged hate-filled messages.
Douglass, a Republican, said in a statement Friday: “I must resign. I know that this decision will upset many, and delight others, but in this political climate I must keep my family safe.”
“If my governor asks me to do something, I will act, because I believe in what he’s trying to do,” the 27-year-old freshman lawmaker added, referring to Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s call for him to step down.
“I love my state, my people, and I am deeply sorry for the offense this caused and that our state was dragged into this,” Douglass added.
Douglass is the only known elected official involved in a leaked Telegram chat first reported by Politico on Tuesday in which members of Young Republican chapters in four states exchanged racist, anti-LGBTQ+, and misogynistic messages, including quips about an “epic” rape and killing people in Nazi gas chambers.
Group chat participants included Michael Bartels, a senior adviser in the office of general counsel at the US Small Business Administration.
The chat included one message in which Douglass equated being Indian with poor hygiene, and another exchange in which his wife, Vermont Young Republican national committee member Brianna Douglass, admonishes the organization for “expecting the Jew to be honest.”
Prominent Republicans have rallied in defense of what Vice President JD Vancecalled the private jokes of “young boys”—who are apparently all in their 20s and 30s.
The fallout from the group chat leak has cost a majority of participants in the Telegram chat their jobs or employment offers.
Most prominently, ex-New York State Young Republicans chair Peter Giunta—who posted “I love Hitler”—was fired from his job as chief of staff to New York Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-62).
Officials said that at least 51 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks Sunday, including massacres at a school, café, beach, and refugee camp.
By Brett Wilkins
The shaky Gaza ceasefire further frayed on Sunday as Israel launched at least 20 airstrikes and blocked all aid delivery in the obliterated Palestinian exclave, while Hamas rejected US allegations that it is preparing to violate the tenuous truce.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it has “now begun a wave of strikes” in southern Gaza “following a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today” by Hamas, whose fighters are accused of killing two Israeli occupation troops and wounding three others in Rafah on Sunday morning.
Gaza officials said that at least 51 Palestinians, including numerous children, were killed across the strip on Sunday. Attacks include but are not limited to a double-tap drone and missile strike on a café west of Deir al-Balah that killed five people, all of them reportedly civilians; an airstrike on a the al-Bureij refugee camp that killed four civilians; an airstrike on the Sardi school that killed four displaced civilians; artillery shelling that killed six civilians on al-Zawaida Beach; and the bombing of a building housing journalists in al-Zawaida that killed two civilians.
The US State Department on Saturday accused Hamas of planning an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza “in grave violation of the ceasefire.” Hamas has been battling Israeli-backed criminal gangs that oppose its longtime rule of Gaza.
In a statement Sunday, Hamas slammed the US allegations as lies that “fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organized aggression” against Palestinians.
Hamas urged the US to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and to focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has violated the nine-day ceasefire at least 48 times, including by bombing residential areas and killing civilians approaching the so-called “yellow line” beyond which Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the truce.
Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.
On Friday, Israeli forces massacred 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return by bus to their home in Gaza City.
In response to what it said were Hamas ceasefire violations, Israel on Sunday closed off crossing points into Gaza, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the strip, where famine conditions persist due to the siege imposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who are both fugitives from the International Criminal Court—at the start of the genocidal war two years ago.
Amjad Al-Shawwa, who heads the Network of Civil Society Organizations in Gaza, warned Sunday that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, especially pregnant women and children, are suffering severe malnutrition. At least hundreds of Gazans have died of malnutrition and related causes.
A senior Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity toldThe Guardian that “round-the-clock” talks were under way to salvage the ceasefire.
Responding to the renewed Israeli bombing, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: “Since the start of the ceasefire, the Netanyahu regime has been itching to fully restart the genocide in Gaza.”
:The cruel and unnecessary mass bombing of civilians across Gaza constitutes a blatant violation of President [Donald] Trump’s ceasefire agreement and a resumption of the genocide,“ CAIR added. ”President Trump must rein in the Israeli occupation forces and stop sending American weapons and American taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s war machine.“
Gaza officials said Israeli forces have broken the tenuous weeklong truce 47 times, killing 38 Palestinians and wounding 143 more.
By Brett Wilkins
Israeli forces killed 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return to their home in the flattened Gaza Strip on Friday evening in what local officials said was the deadliest violation of the shaky weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops fired a tank shell at a bus transporting members of the Abu Shaaban family, who were trying to return to inspect their home in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Among the 11 victims were three women and seven children ages 5-13.
The IDF claimed the “suspicious vehicle” crossed the so-called “yellow line,” beyond which Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, and that warning shots were fired at the bus before troops acted to “remove the threat.”
However, according to the Palestine Chronicle, Basal asserted that “the family could have been warned or dealt with in a way that did not lead to murder.”
“What happened confirms that the occupation remains thirsty for blood and determined to commit crimes against innocent civilians,” he added.
In the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement:
The Israeli government's massacre of a family traveling to assess the remains of their home is the latest deliberate and blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement. The Trump administration must demand that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu stop using American taxpayer dollars and American weapons to sabotage the ceasefire agreement that America brokered so that he can restart the genocide in Gaza.
The State Department and the United Nations must also investigate horrific signs of torture and extrajudicial killing found on the bodies of returned Palestinian hostages. Torturing people to death after kidnapping them and holding them without charge is another example of [breaking] not only international law, but also US law related to foreign aid recipients.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said Saturday that Israeli forces have broken the truce 47 times, killing 38 people and wounding 143 others “in clear and blatant violation of the ceasefire decision and the principles of international humanitarian law.”
Israeli forces have killed at least 68,116 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose figures are likely a vast undercount. Leaked IDF data suggest more than 80% of those killed were civilians. More than 170,200 other Palestinians have been wounded, with approximately 9,500 others missing and believed dead and buried beneath rubble.
"As Trump and his henchmen take our democracy apart, we are called by our future to rescue it," a progressive congressional candidate in Maine said at one of more than 2,700 scheduled protests.
By Brett Wilkins
Democracy defenders took to the streets Saturday in big cities and small towns from coast to coast and around the world to protest President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism and to show the world that “America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people.”
Organizers said that more than 2,700 No Kings rallies are scheduled in every state and more than a dozen nations, in what could be the “largest protest in US history” in one day. Saturday’s demonstrations followed June 14 No Kings protests that drew millions of people.
“I think that this is going to be a stronger push than the last one,” Hunter Dunn of 50501, a progressive organization that is one of the event’s organizers, toldThe New York Times.
“I’m seeing more of an emphasis on the understanding that this is not just a sprint,” he added. “We are seeing a difference in the understanding of the general public, that this is a marathon.”
“ Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, called these rallies ‘Hate America’ events,” Sanders told a huge crowd in Washington, DC. “Why does he have it wrong? Millions of Americans are coming out today not because they hate America, we’re here today because we love America.”
“Today... in this dangerous moment in American history, our message is... no, President Trump, we don’t want you or any other king to rule us,” Sanders continued. “We will not move toward authoritarianism in America. We the People will rule!”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also spoke at the DC rally, telling the crowd that “the truth is that Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America.”
“The truth is that he is enacting a detailed, step-by step plan to try to destroy all of the things that protect our democracy—free speech, fair elections, an independent press, the right to protest,” Murphy continued.
“But the truth is also this: He has not won yet, the people still rule in this country,” the senator added. “And today, all across America, in numbers that may eclipse any day of protest in our nation’s history, Americans are saying loudly and proudly that we are a free people.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) fired up an enthusiastic crowd in Seattle, affirming that “we will not back down, we will not give in” to Trump’s authoritarianism and lawlessness.
“It would be easy to look around us at what’s happening and throw up our hands, be angry, be frustrated, blame someone else, or just disengage, because there’s too much hate and corruption, cruelty, and violence,” Jayapal said.
She added that Trump is “clearly not well,” calling him a “wannabe king who dehumanizes trans people and immigrants, and Black people, and poor people to distract you from his real agenda.”
Jayapal decried a president “who sends National Guard troops and masked men into our cities, militarizing our streets, kidnapping and disappearing tens of thousands of people from our communities, and trying very hard to suppress our dissent.”
“We are not caving in,” she said. “Right now, let’s show the power of this movement... We are the people’s movement that will save our democracy.”
Saturday’s rallies were peaceful, joyous events, replete with signs inscribed with creative slogans like “Our Huddled Masses Will Defeat Your Fascist Asses” and “No Crown for the Clown!”
In Chicago, rallygoers erected a paper machete guillotine in Grant Park, where Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” blared from loudspeakers.
“No sign is big enough to list all the reasons I’m here,” 26-year-old protester Mackayla Reilley told the Chicago Sun-Times. “With everything going on in Chicago, we have to protect immigrants [and] we have to stand up against Trump. We can’t normalize this type of polarization and this type of partisanship.”
In Nashville, Tennessee, 9-year-old Iris Spragens who was attending a rally with her parents, told the Tennessee Lookout that she wished country music icon Dolly Parton were president.
“We don’t want Trump to be king because he can be mean to a lot of immigrants and he kicks out a lot of immigrants,” Spragens said.
Wendy MacConnell, a grandmother who also attended the Nashville protest, told the Lookout that Trump and Republicans are “trying to whitewash this to make it seem like America doesn’t want this—but look around, look around at all these people.”
In Pueblo, Colorado, around 2,000 people rallied at the Pueblo County Government Lawn.
“What the community is doing here today is coming together and saying we won’t take this, we want to be listened to and the people we elect should be listening to the people who vote them in,” 23-year-old Sydney Haney toldKRCC, explaining that she was attending to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) abducting members of her community and attacks on the Constitution, reproductive rights, and healthcare.
In Bangor, Maine, progressive congressional candidate Matt Dunlap told the crowd: “A dangerous time is again upon us. It is bad, and it can get worse, as Trump and his henchmen take our democracy apart, we are called by our future to rescue it.”
“We can and must do more,” Dunlap added. “We owe it to ourselves and the future of this nation to be bold and not afraid, to be hopeful and not despondent, to strive for our independence and reject subjugation by a king.”
In Atlanta, protester Linda Kelley told Fox 5 that “we are so close to being Germany, 1938, and it’s so terrifying.”
“I never thought in my lifetime we’d be somewhere like this,” she added. “People don’t realize what will happen if we don’t stand up.”
Democratic San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre toldKPBS in downtown San Diego that “I am here today in solidarity, so that we cannot continue to accept that our constitutional rights continue to be eroded and taken away from us.”
“We have the right to free speech, we have the right to free press, we have the right to have our families not be separated in the dark of night and dragged away,” Aguirre added.
"Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you 'vote Republican,'" said one Democratic congressman. "Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police."
By Brett Wilkins
Continuing his pattern of pardoning allies and prosecuting adversaries, President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison term of former Republican Congressman George Santos, who was less than three months into a seven year sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
Once again, Trump randomly attacked Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s (D-Conn.) admitted lie about taking part in the US invasion and occupation of Vietnam. Blumenthal was a Marine stationed stateside during the war, in which Trump—who has been derided as “Capt. Bone Spurs”—avoided serving.
“This is what a wannabe king does.”
“He never went to Vietnam, he never saw Vietnam, he never experienced the Battles there, or anywhere else,” Trump said of Blumenthal. “His War Hero status, and even minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP.”
“This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!” the president added. “George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!”
Santos was subsequently released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey after 10:00 pm Friday.
According to a copy of the commutation posted on social media, Santos will also no longer have to pay $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to victims of his fraud. Trump’s action does not erase Santos’ conviction.
Mr. Santos claimed that he was descended from Holocaust refugees. His mother, he said, had been in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He claimed to be a college volleyball star. And Mr. Santos boasted of extensive Wall Street experience that allowed him to report loaning his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars. None of that was true.
Between May and October 2023, Santos was indicted on 23 criminal counts including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States.
In December 2023, House lawmakers voted 311-114 to remove the freshman lawmaker from office. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was among the 112 Republicans and two Democrats who voted against expulsion. Santos became just the sixth lawmaker to ever be booted from the House.
In August 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to two felony counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The following April, he was sentenced to 87 months behind bars and ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture totaling nearly $600,000.
Trump’s commutation of Santos’ sentence follows a series of high-profile acts of clemency. Most notorious among these was his blanket pardon earlier this year of more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, for which the president—himself a 34-count convicted fraudster—was impeached for a historic second time. He was not convicted by the Senate either time.
Friday’s commutation also stands in stark contrast with the Trump administration’s recent indictments of political foes including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Critics were quick to note this pattern, which Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) called “naked corruption.”
“George Santos pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud, a small part of his lying and stealing that really hurt people,” Beyer wrote on social media. “Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you ‘vote Republican.’ Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police.”
West Coast Trial Lawyers president Neama Rahmani said on X following Trump’s announcement: “It’s weeks away, but Trump is handing out pardons like Halloween candy. Disgraced former Rep. George Santos is the latest beneficiary, showing once again that flattering the president gets you everywhere.”
“Sneaking it in on a Friday night means it will get less press too,” Rahmani added. “I can’t wait for Santos’ first cameo appearance post-federal prison. Is Diddy the next recipient of Trump’s clemency?”
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) also reacted to Trump’s commutation on X, writing, “This is what a wannabe king does.”
“Join us tomorrow at a No Kings rally near you,” Pocan added, referring to the more than 2,700 pro-democracy demonstrations set to take place Saturday from coast to coast and around the world.
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