Trump Press Secretary Reveals Horrific Detail of Israeli Air Strikes

The White House co-signed on Israel’s surprise attack on Gaza late Monday. The wave of airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians and upended a Donald Trump–backed ceasefire agreement put in place to advance hostage negotiations.

“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News late Monday.

She then delivered a chilling warning for the countries and organizations that the Trump administration believes are in opposition to the United States.

“And as President Trump has made it clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran—all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America—will see a price to pay; all hell will break loose,” Leavitt said, celebrating America’s own airstrike campaign in Yemen over the weekend.

Israeli officials had threatened an attack for weeks as it failed to move forward on a potential peace deal with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to enter phase two of the ceasefire agreement after phase one of the deal lapsed March 1. Phase two would have started agreements to end the war and withdraw the remaining Israeli troops from Gaza before Israeli hostages were handed over. Instead of following through on their own drafted ceasefire terms, Netanyahu proposed a new arrangement: Hand over half the hostages and then discuss the end of the war.

Hamas rejected these terms, and in turn, Israel restricted humanitarian aid and cut electricity into the region in a pressure campaign to get the militant group to bend.

Both Israel and Hamas disagreed over key aspects of an alternative proposal offered by U.S. officials, which would have extended phase one into April. On Saturday, the U.S. accused Hamas of making “entirely impractical” demands of Israel in the ongoing ceasefire discussions. By Sunday, Netanyahu announced that he would be firing his domestic security chief, who had led ceasefire negotiations for most of the war.

The airstrikes are the heaviest attack by Israel since the ceasefire took effect in January. They hit in conjunction with an evacuation order, issued by Israel, for parts of northern and central Gaza near the perimeter of the two countries. The Guardian reported that the order suggested that a ground invasion involving troops could be “imminent.”

Israeli officials have claimed that attacking Hamas leadership would advance the release of hostages, even as the hostages’ families disagree. But on a practical level, the attack follows a period of rest and restocking for Israel.

“Ammunition stocks have been replenished—partly due to U.S. deliveries—and new potential targets among Hamas’ leaders identified. Planes and other equipment have been repaired. Troops have been rested,” reported The Guardian.

And it’s not clear that handing over the hostages would end the violence against Gaza, either. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has said it intends to continue the war as long as Hamas remains in the war-battered region, reported NPR.

Donald Trump called out two reporters at The Atlantic by name in his latest tirade against media outlets that are willing to report fairly on him.

In what is becoming a more regular occurrence, the president posted yet another meltdown directed at the press on his Truth Social Monday. This time, he targeted specific journalists by name, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, seemingly over an article they published earlier this month about his dreams of despotism.

The president claimed that the “Third Rate Magazine, ‘The Atlantic,’ that made up the ‘Suckers and Losers’ Hoax about me and the Military, and refused to even acknowledge the vast horde of people who emphatically denied this FAKE STORY,” had requested an interview with him.

Trump included his strongly worded reply, which was a list of smears and grievances.

“Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her,” he wrote. “To this date, she doesn’t even know that I won the Presidency THREE times. If you have some other reporter, let us know, but Ashley is not capable or competent enough to understand the intricacies of High Level politics.

“Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES,” Trump continued.

“The Atlantic is doing terribly, losing a fortune, and will hopefully fold up and be gone in the not too distant future. It has absolutely no credibility, and would be far better off, in terms of ‘journalism,’ to cease publication,” Trump wrote. “Nevertheless, when you have a writer with intelligence, competence, and fairness, please let me know!”

While it’s not entirely clear what set the president off this time, earlier this month, Parker and Scherer had published a piece titled “Trump’s Own Declaration of Independence” about Trump’s outlandish demand to move the Declaration of Independence into the Oval Office.

This request presented as ridiculous for two main reasons. First, the president seems to eschew all the convictions held within the actual document: that all men are created equal, that power is divined from the consent of the governed, and the crucial rejection of monarchy, supposedly celebrated by the president who jokingly calls himself the “King.”

Secondly, on a purely logistical level, it seemed impossible. The original document, made of animal-skin parchment, is kept in an oxygen-free, argon-filled case behind heavy glass, which retracts into the wall at night and is kept away from bright lights.

But Trump seems intent on redecorating his digs to add as much pomp and circumstance as possible—and it seems he got his way, or at least some facsimile of it: A copy of the Declaration of Independence is currently hanging in the Oval Office, shielded by short blue curtains.

The Trump administration plans to upend and cripple the Social Security claims process, according to a memo obtained by Popular Information.

An internal  Social Security Administration memo, sent on March 13, outlines changes to the agency that would cause processing delays and prevent Americans from applying for as well as receiving benefits, ostensibly to reduce “fraud risks” according to its author, acting Deputy Commissioner Doris Diaz.

The changes include requiring that people seeking benefits provide proof of identity over the internet for benefit claims made over the phone. If someone is “unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identity documentation.”

Right now, Social Security claims and identity verification can be done over the phone thanks to staffers answering calls on its toll-free number. Actual fraud is rare, because people have to provide multiple pieces of personal information, checked against medical records, bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns, depending on the type of claim. 

Beyond that, if there are any discrepancies, an applicant might have to mail their birth certificate to the agency. This entire process allows people who are elderly or disabled, and thus have difficulty accessing the internet or visiting a physical office, to apply for and collect Social Security benefits. 

Introducing internet verification would be a significant hardship to the 40 percent of Social Security beneficiaries who depend on the phone service. If they can’t use the internet system, they would also have to visit a physical location. Diaz’s own memo estimates that 75,000 to 85,000 people would have to visit Social Security offices under the new policy. 

But even before the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive cuts to the agency, the SSA’s physical offices had an average wait time of more than a month. They don’t accept walk-ins and would not be able to accommodate such a large increase in foot traffic. 

The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, recently announced further cuts of 7,000 employees, or about 12 percent of the agency. Physical offices around the country are being closed, and some people are more than 100 miles away from the nearest location. On top of that, one day before the memo was issued, the agency was reportedly considering ending its phone service altogether due to misguided concerns from DOGE over widespread fraud.

After an outcry over ending the phone service, the SSA denied that it was being eliminated, with this memo appearing to be a workaround. Even still, if these changes go through, many disabled and elderly people will have major difficulties in getting their benefits and may end up losing them altogether. The memo foresees this, stating there will be “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls.” All of that is a euphemism for causing irreparable damage to Social Security.

Abortion providers are now being arrested in Texas.

Maria Margarita Rojas, a 48-year-old Houston-area midwife, was arrested in the Lone Star State Monday on allegations that she had provided illegal abortions.

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the charges against Rojas Monday afternoon. It’s the first instance in which an abortion provider has faced criminal consequences in the wake of Texas’s 2022 abortion ban.

“In Texas, life is sacred. I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our state’s pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted,” Paxton said in a statement.

“Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable,” he added.

Paxton’s office charged Rojas, known locally as “Dr. Maria,” with operating a network of clinics between Waller, Cypress, and Spring in the northwest Houston area. The clinics allegedly “unlawfully employed unlicensed individuals who falsely presented themselves as licensed medical professionals,” according to a press release.

The consequences for Rojas could be extreme: Under Texas law, she could face life in prison and have her state medical license revoked.

Texas permits abortions only in the most rare and dire circumstances in order to save the life of a pregnant patient, and even then, they’re not guaranteed. Last year, Kate Cox was forced to flee Texas for emergency care even after a court ruled that the 31-year-old mother of two should have access to an abortion under the ban’s medical emergencies clause. But Paxton intervened in the court ruling, threatening that any Texas abortion provider believed to help Cox would face felony charges.

Even out-of-state abortion providers have been threatened by the wide-reaching Texas law. In December, Paxton sued a New York doctor for prescribing the abortion pill to an in-state resident, demanding that the provider pay $100,000 for every violation of the state’s ban. The lawsuit was the first attempt to enforce a state abortion ban beyond its borders.

By and large, most Americans support abortion access. In a 2023 Gallup poll, just 12 percent of surveyed Americans said that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. Meanwhile, 69 percent believe that it should be legal in the first trimester of pregnancy.

The Trump administration’s gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development ended up halting efforts to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam, leaving thousands of Vietnamese people living near the Bien Hoa air base, the site of a major chemical spill, at risk of poisoning.

After Trump issued an executive order halting all foreign aid in February, cleanup efforts at the base suddenly ceased since workers weren’t being paid. Open pits contaminated with dioxin—a toxic by-product of Agent Orange, which the U.S. military used in the Vietnam War—were left exposed. For weeks, the pits were covered with tarps, which at one point even blew away with the wind.

U.S. diplomats stationed in Vietnam frantically contacted Washington on February 14 to relay the news, and also pointed out that Vietnam’s rainy season was soon coming, according to a letter obtained by ProPublica. If enough rain fell, they warned, contaminated soil could flood into nearby communities and poison water and food supplies.

Hundreds of thousands of people live near the base, only yards away from contaminated sites in some cases. A major river that flows into Ho Chi Minh City, with a population of nine million people, is only 1,500 feet away from the contaminated area.

The diplomats’ letter warned that “we are quickly heading toward an environmental and life-threatening catastrophe,” but received no response from Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with Trump staffer Peter Marocco, then ordered the cleanup efforts to stop and froze $1 million in payments to contractors working on the cleanup before canceling the contracts altogether on February 26.

While Rubio and Marocco abruptly reversed their decision a week later, the companies still have not been paid as of Thursday. With a looming disaster, the companies are now scrambling to secure the area at their own expense before the rain arrives, according to ProPublica. And the USAID staff who would be providing oversight have either been placed on leave or barred from traveling.

The critical effort is one of the many casualties of Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has made massive cuts across the federal government and decimated foreign aid projects. This cut is particularly bad not only because of the toxic consequences but also because the dioxin is only there thanks to the U.S. military spraying large quantities of Agent Orange across Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Trying to minimize environmental and public health consequences from that spraying is very much America’s responsibility, but it seems that Trump, Musk, and Republicans couldn’t care less. They fail to realize that such international aid projects, including efforts to fund global public health, boost America’s “soft power” and improve the country’s image, particularly in a region where the U.S. caused lasting destruction.