Latest news with #Obama
CNN
an hour ago
- Politics
- CNN
Don Jr.: ‘Affirmative Action' is why Obama won Nobel, not Trump
President Trump's desire for a Nobel Prize is no secret and he often blames politics as the reason he hasn't yet won. Donald Trump Jr claimed in an X post that President Obama won his because of "affirmative action"
CNN
an hour ago
- Politics
- CNN
Don Jr.: ‘Affirmative Action' is why Obama won Nobel, not Trump
President Trump's desire for a Nobel Prize is no secret and he often blames politics as the reason he hasn't yet won. Donald Trump Jr claimed in an X post that President Obama won his because of "affirmative action"
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Presidents have F---'s to give when it's about Israel's Bibi Netanyahu
What is it about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu that drives American presidents to profanity? As Iran and Israel were still exchanging salvos after President Donald Trump had declared a ceasefire, Trump complained that these two countries "had been fighting for so long they don't know what the f--- they are doing." Trump's anger came through, and the ceasefire is holding — for now. While Trump is the latest president to send profanity in Netanyahu's direction, he is far from the only one. In fact, presidents have been cursing at Netanyahu for three decades. In the 1990s, Netanyahu and President Bill Clinton had a contentious relationship. In two separate elections, 1996 and 1999, Clinton sent political aides to try and defeat Netanyahu. He succeeded the second time. In the interim, though, they had to work together, and on one visit to the White House, Clinton was annoyed with how Netanyahu comported himself at a joint press conference. Afterward, Clinton reportedly fumed to his aides, "who's the f---ing leader of the free world?," suggesting that Netanyahu had overstepped his boundaries. Due in no small part to Clinton's efforts, Netanyahu was out of office during President George W. Bush's years, but cussing came back with Netanyahu's return during President Barack Obama's time in office. Netanyahu and Obama really disliked each other, and had a number of unpleasant run-ins, including one incident where Obama left Netanyahu and his team to cool their heels in the White House while Obama went to have dinner at the residence. Then, as now, the Iranian nuclear program and the matter of the Palestinians were matters of intense debate. Obama and company felt that Netanyahu was too cowardly on both issues. A senior Obama official, who may have been Obama himself, told The Atlantic that Netanyahu was "a chickensh***." The remark sparked outrage, especially since Netanyahu had been a decorated soldier in the Israeli special forces. Netanyahu pushed back on the comment, saying in a statement that "The attack on me comes because I defend the State of Israel and despite all the attacks, I will continue to defend our country and the citizens of Israel." Trump followed Obama and, by all accounts, they had a far better relationship, punctuated by important milestones such as the moving of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the signing of the Abraham Accords peace deals between Israel and four Arab countries. But Bibi also irked Trump by calling President Joe Biden to congratulate him for his 2020 election victory. This move managed to anger both Biden, who felt that Netanyahu had waited too long to make the call, and Trump, who felt that Netanyahu had betrayed him by calling at all. Trump signaled afterward that he was done with Netanyahu, saying starkly, "f--- him." Trump has three more years in office, but it will be hard for him to break the cursing at Netanyahu record set by Biden. Multiple reports have Biden launching streams of profane invective at Netanyahu, including calling Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas "two of the biggest f---ing a--sholes in the world" ; saying that Netanyahu was "a f---ing liar," and adding, for good measure, that "Eighteen out of 19 people who work for him are f---ing liars."; and barking, "That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he's a bad guy. He's a bad f---ing guy!" Biden also was not above cursing at Netanyahu directly. When Israel killed Hezbollah's Fuad Shukur, a fiend who helped kill 241 U.S. Marines in 1983, Biden should have praised Bibi for bringing Shukur to justice. Instead, he screamed at Netanyahu over the phone, "Bibi, what the f---?" With Trump now back in office, the two men have mostly cooperated, with Trump helping to release some of the Israeli hostages from Hamas' Gaza dungeons and striking the Iranian nuclear program, which elated Netanyahu. Yet the "they don't know what the f--- they are doing" incident shows that Netanyahu has the capacity to drive even friendly U.S. presidents to profanity. The question is why. One reason is that Netanyahu, unlike American presidents, lives in a dangerous neighborhood and faces constant existential threats. While some world leaders might acquiesce in a disagreement with the American president, Bibi is more likely to push back. A second reason lies in the way Netanyahu pushes back. His method, which he absorbed from his father's mentor, the Zionist leader Zev Jabotinsky, is to reach over the heads of the presidents and directly to the American people. As the record of profanity sent in his direction suggests, this method tends to annoy presidents. It also appears to have led to a grievous and welcome blow to the Iranian nuclear program.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Immigrant detentions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania hit highs not seen since 2011
The number of individuals arrested and held in New Jersey and Pennsylvania detention centers pending deportation hearings has risen to levels not seen since the early years of the Obama presidency, according to recently released government data. The detained population in New Jersey surged 451% since the end of April, when only 65 newly-arrested individuals were detained while awaiting deportation hearings. Pennsylvania's detained population crossed the 300 mark in March for the first time since 2011. As of May 31, ICE held 358 and 353 people, respectively, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania detention facilities who were detained that month as their deportation cases wound their way through immigration court. New Jersey's figure represents the highest number of such detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 14 years while Pennsylvania's is the highest in 16. The figures reflect the number of individuals detained in a given month pending removal proceedings who remain in detention at the end of the month in which they were detained. They are an undercount of detained individuals as they do not include people in so-called "expedited removal," a process by which immigration officers can deport noncitizens from the United States without a hearing before an immigration judge. President Donald Trump expanded the use of expedited removal upon returning to office. The figures were published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a data gathering and research organization which regularly acquires and analyzes such data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, and ICE through Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation. The data do not indicate which centers held the individuals but the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark began housing migrants on May 1. Jenny Garcia, a communications associate at Detention Watch Network, a national coalition that supports local communities trying to shut down local centers, has no doubt the increase is at least partly tied to the facility's opening. "When a detention center opens up within a state - within a community - ICE is going to fill those beds with local people - people in the tri-State Area," Garcia said. The Delaney facility, located in an industrial stretch along the Passaic River, has been dogged by controversy since before it even opened. The administration of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in March filed a lawsuit and issued a stop-work order against GEO Group, the private prison company which operates the center under a 15-year contract with ICE worth $1 billion, claiming the company blocked city building inspectors from conducting required inspections. Baraka, a candidate in this month's Democratic primary for the state's governorship, was later arrested at a protest outside the center shortly after it began operating. Baraka is currently suing New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba for "false arrest and malicious prosecution." The U.S. Attorney's Office last week charged four Delaney Hall detainees with attempting to escape earlier in the month amid reports of late-arriving meals and other poor conditions at the facility. Garcia, whose group has held daily vigils outside of Delaney Hall since the center began holding migrants, said detainees have suffered from a lack of medical care and food, alternately freezing and boiling temperatures, and access to family and legal counsel. "We've seen clergy get denied. We've seen families get denied," Garcia said. "And, very concerningly, we've seen many, many lawyers get denied visits with their clients." A spokesperson for ICE's Newark field office did not respond to an email seeking comment on conditions at the facility and whether the agency has been making an effort to detain more individuals now that it's open. While Pennsylvania did not experience the same month-over-month surge in detentions that New Jersey did, the 353 individuals held in detention pending removal proceedings is the highest number since September 2009. The state's detained population has increased every month since last December and crossed the 300 mark in March for the first time since 2011. Peter Pedemonti, the co-director of the New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, decried the increased detentions. "I hope everybody can look at those numbers and agree that those are 353 people who have been abducted out of our communities," Pedemonti said. "These are our are members of our community." The number of detained people in Pennsylvania has long been higher than that of New Jersey. Before May, the last time New Jersey's total exceeded that of Pennsylvania was March 2020. Part of that is the presence of the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. The former federal prison, located 30 miles northwest of State College, was repurposed as an ICE detention facility in 2021. The facility is run by Geo Group, the same private prison company that operates Delaney Hall, and has faced accusations of serious mistreatment of detainees. Activists have identified Moshannon as the ICE facility where detained Philadelphia residents are most often sent. Pedemonti said he expects Pennsylvania's numbers could rise even further based on anecdotal reports of increased arrests in recent weeks. "(ICE) is under tremendous pressure to produce numbers," Pedemonti said. "We've seen an uptick in the last three weeks (in arrests) in Philadelphia and before that was Norristown, and I'm sure we'll see that in the June (detention) numbers." A spokesperson for ICE's Philadelphia field office did not respond to an email seeking comment on whether the agency has recently been making an effort to detain more individuals. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Time Magazine
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Time Magazine
Trump Should Have Never Ditched the Iran Nuclear Deal
Questions remain over the true damage to Iran's nuclear program. But as conflicting comments and reports come in from the Trump Administration and Pentagon intelligence estimates, one thing is certain: Trump's failed diplomacy got us in this mess. I should know. Ten years ago, I was in Vienna as part of the U.S. team negotiating a deal to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Those negotiations culminated in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was Trump's decision in 2018 to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal that ultimately led to the perilous situation in the Middle East today. The JCPOA was the result of a sustained campaign of principled, effective U.S. diplomacy. President Obama began laying groundwork for this nuclear deal as soon as he came to office in 2009. His view—shared then and now across the U.S. political spectrum—was that the U.S. cannot accept a nuclear-armed Iran. At the time, Iran claimed that its nuclear energy program was for exclusively peaceful uses. Yet given evidence of Iran's past interest in possessing a nuclear bomb prior to 2003, the U.S. could not take this claim at face value. To get the nuclear deal, Obama and his national security team rallied the world to increase pressure on Tehran. The U.S., E.U., and other allies put in place punishing sanctions. The U.N. Security Council followed suit with a fresh round of sanctions in June 2010 that were wide-ranging and targeted the nuclear program. These sanctions worked: they convinced Iran to come to the negotiating table. To iron out the technical provisions of a deal, the U.S. then put together a team of top career diplomats, nuclear scientists, lawyers, and sanctions experts. It was a remarkable lineup of American patriots and professionals. It was my great honor to serve on that team. Our goal was to offer Iran phased and reversible sanctions relief in exchange for far-reaching limits on Iran's nuclear activities. To maximize leverage, we coordinated with other countries, including not just European allies but also Russia and China. It was difficult, exacting, high-stakes work—for months on end. The effort paid off. Iran agreed to substantial limits on its nuclear activities, including to export out of the country around 98% of its enriched uranium stockpile. Iran's commitments were then subject to intrusive and permanent international monitoring. By the end of the Obama Administration, the deal was working, with all sides implementing their commitments. Trump's abrupt withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 led to the predictable result: Iran's nuclear program surged ahead, breaking free of the deal's constraints. When Trump returned to office in January, he launched a hasty effort to negotiate a new deal. But it bore a striking resemblance to the deal negotiated by Obama, with one nuclear expert calling the Trump framework a 'dollar store JCPOA.' Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tanked these talks with airstrikes on June 12. The U.S. launched its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22. Trump seems convinced the matter is now resolved. But what will be the fate of the tons of enriched uranium that Iran stockpiled after Trump withdrew from the JCPOA? How much Iranian nuclear infrastructure remains intact? Will Iran ever welcome back intrusive international monitoring of its nuclear activities, such as specified in the JCPOA? To resolve these questions, the Trump Administration will need to do the tedious, difficult work of pursuing complex negotiations. Talks look set to resume next week. But it will require a high level of technical expertise and diplomatic capacity. And the timing couldn't be worse, as Trump and Elon Musk's culture war on the so-called 'Deep State' has hollowed out and demoralized the ranks of government experts whose support was critical to achieving the JCPOA in the first place. This sad saga has reminded me of what we've lost in the Trump era. The JCPOA was a product of effective and principled American diplomacy, undertaken in close coordination with our closest allies. It was a team effort by countless government professionals and specialists, all motivated by patriotism and a sense of mission, and operating in an era where they were celebrated not denigrated. It was a victory of dialogue and diplomacy over bluster and bombs. Ten years ago that approach delivered results for the American people and the world. I worry about what comes next.
