Trump Threatens Violence Against Hamas as Gaza Ceasefire Outlook Dims

It looks like President Donald Trump may have jumped the shark on declaring peace in the Middle East: Less than 24 hours after declaring that the war between Israel and Hamas had finally finished, Trump promised to disarm Hamas by force, if they did not do it themselves.

During a meeting with Argentinian President Javier Milei Tuesday, Trump made a startling threat while dodging a question from a reporter about Hamas disarming. “How long will it take Hamas to disarm, and can you guarantee that is going to happen?” the reporter asked.

“Well, they’re going to disarm, because they said they were going to disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” Trump replied.

“How will you do that?” the reporter pressed.

“I don’t have to explain that to you,” Trump bit back, adding, “They know I’m not playing games.”

Trump continued in a weaving ramble before circling back to the issue of disarming Hamas. “We have told them, we want disarm, and they will disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. And it will happen quickly, and perhaps violently. But they will disarm. Do you understand me?” he said.

It quickly became clear that Trump lacked any actual details about disarming Hamas. The president claimed that he’d spoken directly to Hamas, but later clarified he’d heard of their plans to disarm “through [his] people at the highest level.”

When asked how long the group would be given to disarm, Trump said they’d have a “reasonable period of time, pretty quickly.”

On Monday, Trump attended the signing of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, following the release of the remaining 20 Israeli hostages in Gaza and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, including 1,700 taken over the last two years and held without charges. Speaking before Israel’s Knesset that day, Trump said, “This is not only the end of a war, this is the end of an age of terror and death and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God.”

While both sides have agreed to this first phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, it’s still unclear whether peace will persist. Trump announced Tuesday that the second phase would commence, meaning, “Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.”

Reuters reported Tuesday that Israel has continued to block essential aid into Gaza, while Hamas has begun executing political rivals in the streets, after receiving approval from Trump to act as police for a “period of time.”

If Trump’s latest comments are anything to go by, more bloodshed may yet be in Gaza’s future, following the formal end of Israel’s catastrophic military campaign that has killed more than 65,000 people—including medics and journalists—displaced nearly two million more, and caused widespread famine.

President Trump refused to answer a question from an ABC reporter at his sitdown with Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday, citing host George Stephanopoulos’s embarrassment of Vice President JD Vance on Sunday.

“You’re ABC fake news, I don’t take questions from ABC fake news,” Trump said as a reporter shouted a question at him. “After what you did with Stephanopoulos to the vice president of the United States—I don’t take questions from ABC fake news.”

Stephanopoulos didn’t “do” anything to Vance—he simply called him out on his B.S. regarding the $50,000 cash bribe the FBI caught current White House border czar Tom Homan accepting in a sting operation in 2024. Vance and the Trump administration continue to state that Homan committed no crime while being unable to say where the $50,000 went.

“Tom Homan did not take a bribe,” Vance told ABC on Sunday. “It’s a ridiculous smear. And the reason you guys are going after Tom Homan so aggressively is because he’s doing the job of enforcing the law. I think it’s really preposterous.”

“But, wait, you said he didn’t take a bribe,” Stephanopoulos pushed. “But I’m not sure you answered the question. Are you saying that he did not accept the $50,000?”

“George, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what?” Vance said, feigning ignorance.

“He was recorded on an audiotape in September of 2024, an FBI surveillance tape, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money?” Stephanopoulos said.

“Accepting $50,000 for doing what, George?” Vance replied. “I am not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to take a payment for doing services? The FBI has not prosecuted him. I have never seen any evidence that he’s engaged in criminal wrongdoing. Nobody has accused Tom of violating a crime, even the far-left media like yourself.

“So I’m actually not sure what the precise question is. Did he accept $50,000? Honestly, George, I don’t know the answer to that question,” Vance continued. “What I do know is that he didn’t violate a crime.”

The nonanswer led Stephanopoulos to pull the plug on the interview, a move that clearly bothered Trump, especially given his past ire for Stephanopoulos.

Now the president is using the perceived slight to his vice president as an excuse to further censor the media.

Even the president can’t spell out how his Argentina bailout package will benefit the United States.

The White House is moving forward with its multibillion-dollar lifeline to Argentina, which will give $20 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to a nation on the verge of economic collapse. However, Donald Trump can’t seem to explain why Americans are the ones responsible for making “Argentina great again.”

“Just helping a great philosophy take over a great country,” Trump told one Spanish-speaking reporter during a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei at the White House Tuesday. “Argentina is one of the most beautiful countries that I’ve ever seen, and we want to see it succeed, very simple.

“We don’t have to do it. It’s not going to make a big difference for our country,” he continued. “But it will for South America.”

Speaking to another reporter, Trump claimed that the bailout is “really meant to help a good financial philosophy.”

“So, when we can help our neighbors—you know we’re making tremendous progress in South America,” Trump said.

Whether or not Trump is willing to acknowledge it, $20 billion is no paltry sum. Stateside, the government is still shut down over how to fund Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget, which included details to slice billions from Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid.

And the U.S. will need a bailout of its own very soon. American soybean farmers have been pummeled by Trump’s tariff policies, which have ripped the Chinese market from their grasp. However, after it came to light that Argentina had replaced the U.S. as China’s top soybean supplier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that the anticipated Argentina-bound cash infusion had morphed into a “credit swap line.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson thinks faith leaders and journalists are fair targets for federal law enforcement officers that have descended on Chicago.

During a press conference Tuesday, Johnson flailed when asked where he’d draw the line on brutality by federal officers carrying out President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”

“We’ve seen images out of Chicago of federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and arresting journalists,” a reporter said. “Where’s the limit for you on what’s acceptable conduct by federal law enforcement? And when is it incumbent on Congress to amend oversight on federal law enforcement?” 

“I’ve not seen them cross the line yet,” Johnson replied, saying that there were some committees with jurisdiction over federal law enforcement. “It’s not risen to that level.” 

But the few instances cited in the question are evidence enough that federal forces have crossed several legal and ethical lines. 

In September, at the ICE facility in the Chicago neighborhood of Broadview, an ICE agent shot a Presbyterian minister in the head with a pepper ball. Last week, a federal judge barred federal law enforcement from firing certain kinds of crowd control tactics, including less-lethal projectiles and chemical irritants. The temporary restraining order required officers to issue two warnings before using riot control weapons. Still, federal agents reportedly released tear gas on residents responding to a violent arrest during a protest in Albany Park, without giving any warning. 

Also last week, Border Patrol agents violently arrested Debbie Brockman, a producer for Chicago television station WGN-TV, despite a judge’s temporary restraining order barring agents from detaining journalists. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed that Brockman had thrown objects at the agents’ vehicle and was “placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.” Brockman was released without charges.

Johnson said he was much more concerned with the alleged “abuse of law enforcement by radical leftist activists.” The Louisiana Republican joked that “the most threatening thing” he’d seen yet was a parade of nude cyclists in Portland—a tame example of the violent dissent he hoped to demonstrate. As for the alleged “physical assaults” against “valiant, brave, patriotic” ICE agents, Johnson didn’t deign to summon a single example.  

MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene somehow continues to come off as one of the realest legislators in all of Congress, stating that the men in her party are “weak” and “afraid” of women like her.

Greene spoke to The Washington Post in an exclusive interview published on Tuesday, and continued her trend of bucking her party to speak out independently on how she feels about Republican leadership.

“My district knows I ran for Congress trashing Republicans.… They voted for me because they agreed with that. My district’s not surprised,” Greene said. “Whereas President Trump has a very strong, dominant style—he’s not weak at all—a lot of the men here in the House are weak.

“There’s a lot of weak Republican men and they’re more afraid of strong Republican women,” she continued. “So they always try to marginalize the strong Republican women that actually want to do something and actually want to achieve.”

Greene noted specifically that Speaker Mike Johnson had issues dealing with women like her, contrasting him to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whom she said elevated women in the party, calling it a “night and day” difference.

“They’re always intimidated by stronger Republican women because we mean it and we will do it and we will make them look bad,” she said.

While Greene has her fair share of alarming, conspiratorial, and easily cancelable takes, she has been more on point than even many Democrats in recent weeks.

“I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year. Also, I think health insurance and all insurance is a scam, just be clear!” Greene said, just a week ago. “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!”

“I don’t think it’s believable to tell the American people that while we control the White House, the House, and the Senate, that we can’t return to work in Washington, D.C., because Chuck Schumer and six other Democrats won’t vote to open the government,” Greene said just days later. “I know people. They don’t believe that.”

She has been even more shockingly progressive on Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, striking a more progressive tone than the likes of Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries.

“The relentless bombing of the Palestinian people—and many of them have just been innocent people. They’re not Hamas, they’re literally women and children, and you can’t unsee the amount of pictures and videos of children that have been blown to pieces,” she told CNN last week, just days after she called out her own party on health care. “They’re finding them dead in the rubble. Those aren’t actors, that isn’t fake war propaganda, it’s very real. And I think that is equally horrific. I wanna see an end to it, and I think most Americans do.” She doubled down on a podcast days later, stating that the IDF “is still unbelievably controlling and brutal to people at checkpoints.”

While Greene has by no means switched loyalties—and will likely say something appalling about Jews, transgender people, or immigrants before the month is out—there is no ignoring the transparency and resonance statements like these have carried. If it continues, the GOP will have a serious, loud problem on their hands.