the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua which has been terrorizing cities across the country—and then the administration sent at least one planeload of members of the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” back to their country of origin.

It didn’t take long for Obama appointed Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to kneecap the effort. Not only did he issue a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation of any Venezuelans, but he also ordered that the plane (or planes; it’s unclear) return the gangsters to the U.S.

The actions against the president began even before he signed the order. Mind-boggling:

Hours before the proclamation was signed, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward and the ACLU of the District of Columbia, claiming it could be used to deport any Venezuelan in the country, regardless of whether they are a member of TdA.

At a hearing Saturday afternoon, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the D.C. Circuit granted a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation of the five Venezuelans, who had already been in federal custody for two weeks.

Two planes that may have been en route to deport illegal immigrants were ordered returned by the judge. However, it is unclear as of Saturday night if they have done so. //

Bukele is a tough character whose uncompromising stance on law and order has transformed El Salvador from the most dangerous to the safest country in Central America; see El Salvadorian Hardman, President Nayib Bukele Wins Blowout Re-Election Victory – RedState. I'd much rather have Venezeuelan terrorists held in El Salvador than detained in America, and if it costs less in the process, that's a bonus. //

I remain of the view that this is a test case the Trump Admin has purposely triggered in order to RE-establish POTUS authority to use the AEA [note: Alien Enemies Act] to address the consequences of the Biden Admin "Open Border" policy. That policy allowed millions of unvetted migrants to enter the country illegally. The ability of the Administration to deport a substantial number of those illegal aliens is limited by the physical facilities necessary to arrest, detain, and hold them while deportation proceedings take place. Having the ability to execute mass deportations of the worst criminal offenders without going through the processes set forth in other federal statutes would increase significantly the pace by which large numbers of such individuals could be removed without burdening the facilities we do have.

...

What makes me think this is a test case is that the complaint was filed before President Trump issued an Executive Order stating that he would be using the AEA to remove these five individuals. The exercise of authority under the AEA begins with a Presidential “Proclamation” that certain factual circumstances have arisen, and extraordinary Presidential authority granted by Congress is being invoked to respond to those circumstances.

At the time the complaint was filed, no such proclamation had been issued by President Trump, but the Complaint was specific to an extent that would be highly unlikely if the Plaintiffs’ attorneys had not been given a preview of what it was likely to say.

the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua which has been terrorizing cities across the country—and then the administration sent at least one planeload of members of the “Foreign Terrorist Organization” back to their country of origin.

It didn’t take long for Obama appointed Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to kneecap the effort. Not only did he issue a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation of any Venezuelans, but he also ordered that the plane (or planes; it’s unclear) return the gangsters to the U.S.

The actions against the president began even before he signed the order. Mind-boggling:

Hours before the proclamation was signed, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward and the ACLU of the District of Columbia, claiming it could be used to deport any Venezuelan in the country, regardless of whether they are a member of TdA.

At a hearing Saturday afternoon, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the D.C. Circuit granted a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation of the five Venezuelans, who had already been in federal custody for two weeks.

Two planes that may have been en route to deport illegal immigrants were ordered returned by the judge. However, it is unclear as of Saturday night if they have done so.

A key aide to former President Joe Biden may have exceeded their authority by liberally using an autopen to sign official documents, according to two former White House sources, as President Trump’s aides set up “far more restrictive” rules governing the use of the mechanical device.

A document obtained by The Post outlines the narrow set of circumstances in which Trump’s signature can be affixed to documents, following controversy this week kicked off by a Heritage Foundation analysis of Biden signatures on various records, including last-minute pardons. //

One Biden White House source told The Post they suspect that a key aide to the then-president may have made unilateral determinations on what to auto-sign. The Post is not publishing that staffer’s name due to the lack of concrete evidence and refutations by other colleagues.

The Biden aide, who did not respond to requests for comment, would frequently make mention of what “the boss” wanted, the source said, but compatriots would have “no idea” if it was true because the internal culture was to not ask questions. //

The autopen, housed in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, hasn’t been used only for weighty documents — such as pardons issued to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Dr. Anthony Fauci in the closing days of Biden’s term.

In fact, the pen has been used by White House staff to ink everything from kitchen utensils to sports memorabilia. //

An internal memo drafted Thursday by Trump staff secretary William Scharf, who for the past two months has publicly described and presented documents to Trump for his signature in the Oval Office, lays out the restrictive current use of the autopen.

“We have gone significantly further than [the] need for express approval, both in this Administration and in the First Trump Administration,” Scharf wrote.

“Our practice around autopen usage is far more restrictive than most previous administrations. We do not use the autopen for documents that exercise the powers of the Presidency. So, for example, we do not use the autopen for executive orders, presidential memoranda, decision memoranda, nominations, appointment orders or commissions, or bills to be signed,” he wrote. //

Chelan Jim
5 hours ago
The Biden administration combined two movies "Dave" where a lookalike takes over for a president on life support and "Weekend at Bernie's" where the deceased was carried around to give the appearance he was still around.

In either case, if this is ever proven, this would be very much worse than the fabricated charges against the J6'ers.

mopani Chelan Jim
13 minutes ago
Throw in "Waking Ned Devine" for the hat trick.

TRUMP: I blame the Democrats, and Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian.

(Reporters erupt). //

houdini1984
8 hours ago
"Palestinian" is just another way to say antisemite. Schumer is a Palestinian.

Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47
·
.@POTUS: "We want to bring the schools back to the states because we have the worst education department and education in the world... we're ranked at the bottom of the list, and yet we're number one when it comes to cost per pupil."

11:21 AM · Mar 9, 2025
18.8K

Hank Reardon
3 hours ago
At LEAST four wins here . . .

• American parents love it. Replacing big government leftist indoctrination with . . . locally accountable education. Imagine that!

• Weingarten hates it. Her reign of indoctrination and $500k/yr salary are threatened.

• Carter’s legacy. Going the way of Carter. R.I.P., sir.

• Real estate prices in northern Virginia. Taking another step downward as more big government blue voters prepare to leave town. And (let’s hope) GOP voters fill the void, turning another state solidly red.

The funny thing about this is that some of these memes started as leftist attacks, but the right co-opted them and ran with it. Why would they do it?

I think Tim Pool actually nailed it in a conversation he had about the memes. There are going to be people who don't get why Vance's own supporters would make memes that make fun of Vance, and a lot of these people are going to be women. Not bashing women, but the way men and women communicate is different.

When men like each other, they'll actively make fun of one another. It's how we express ourselves to one another in a way that might not seem close, and possibly even confrontational, but it's actually an expression of appreciation and respect. //

These memes are communicating to the public that Vance is fun, culturally relevant, and culturally irreverent at the same time. He can laugh with us, even at himself, making him more relatable and approachable. His levity stands in stark contrast to leftist severity, which makes him even more endearing to the people. //

Politics is downstream of culture, and Vance is being inserted into the culture in a way that is more or less unlooked-for but powerful nonetheless. Memes are a powerful cognitive tool, especially in the age of the internet, and Vance starring in so many — especially in the form of good-natured mocking — is making him a cultural mainstay.

It's the kind of popularity politicians wish they could get, but rarely do.

The White House moves have sent a chill through the world of Big Law, at a time when litigation has emerged as one of the few checks on the president.

In private conversations, partners at some of the nation’s leading firms have expressed outrage at the president’s actions. What they haven’t been willing to do is say so publicly. Back-channel efforts to persuade major law firms to sign public statements criticizing Trump’s actions thus far have foundered, in part because of retaliation fears, people familiar with the matter said. //

nothing in those orders prevents anyone from engaging either firm to defend, nor does it prevent anyone from associating with them.

The real complaint is that both firms, under Obama and Biden, had taken on the air of quasi-governmental law shops. Some of their lawyers held high-level security clearances without any need. Apparently, the US government maintained SCIFs at Perkins Coie offices, allowing easy access to highly classified intelligence. Some of their lawyers and staff held permanent passes permitting unescorted entry to some federal agencies. The orders do nothing to prevent either law firm from representing clients needing access to top secret information; they are just required to play by the same rules as every other law office in the country. Attorneys can get clearances on a case-by-case basis, they have to access top secret information in government SCIFs, and their attorneys can't meander through federal buildings without an escort and appointment.

McQuade's sniveling really rings false when one considers the concerted campaign by Democrats to disbar and socially disappear lawyers who worked for President Trump after the 2020 selection of Joe Biden to contest election results in Georgia and Arizona. //

If law firms want to be neutral parties, they must stop being political guns-for-hire. As former RedStater Bill Shipley noted, he took on January 6 defendants pro bono because major law firms would not touch these cases even though they would defend known terrorists. //

But if they want to be combatants, they have no reason to complain when they become targets. //

Mrminwnc T_Edward
a day ago
When you’re used to special treatment, equal treatment feels like discrimination.

Americans should support Elon Musk as President Trump has. His push to slash government waste through DOGE could lighten the tax load and boost economic vitality for all people.

The reason leftists are going after Tesla is not simply because it's his "baby." It's because the company is a symbol of his proven cost-cutting success.

They don't want that. Liberals want the waste and fraud to continue unabated. It's their "baby."

"The CBP Home App gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News. //

ConservativeInMinnesota
5 hours ago
Let them make some money as they get deported. Add a tip line for them to turn in illegal aliens, employers and smugglers. For each tip that pans out they make money and we get tips to bust scum like AOC that enable illegal aliens.

I think there is a common thread running through these selections. They are not creatures of the system, but they are familiar with it and how it is broken. Their loyalty is to Trump and Hegseth, not to defense contractors or congressional powerbrokers. They have a genuine desire to rebuild the military.

Putting Parlatore in the Navy JAG slot will give Phelan and Cao a strong partner in cleaning up the cultural morass that has created a Navy that appears to be absolutely broken to the outside observer.

These judges aren’t applying law; they’re rewriting it.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh in dissent, saw through this charade. His words cut to the core of the issue: “Does a single district court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.” //

The separation of powers doctrine enshrined in the Constitution assigns distinct roles to each branch of government. The executive, led by the president, has broad authority over foreign affairs and the execution of federal funds, especially when Congress has not explicitly mandated their disbursement. Trump’s foreign aid pause, enacted on his first day back in office, was a legitimate exercise of that authority, aimed at reevaluating programs he deemed wasteful.

Yet the Supreme Court’s decision allows the judiciary to override this discretion, effectively seizing control of the purse strings — a power reserved for Congress and the executive. In joining the leftist justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett have tipped the scales toward judicial supremacy, blurring the lines between the branches and weakening the presidency.

President Trump should seriously consider defying this order. History offers precedent: Andrew Jackson famously ignored the Supreme Court’s 1832 ruling in Worcester v. Georgia, declaring, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Jackson’s stance was controversial, but it underscored a truth: the Supreme Court has no army, no purse, no means to enforce its will beyond the executive’s cooperation.

If Trump refuses to pay, he’d be asserting the executive’s constitutional primacy over foreign policy and federal spending, forcing a reckoning on the judiciary’s overreach. The risks — legal challenges, political backlash, Democrats later making the same play — are real, but so is the cost of compliance: a precedent that emboldens activist judges to micromanage the executive at every turn.

Critics will cry “rule of law,” but what law demands $2 billion be paid “posthaste” without due process or legislative clarity? The Administrative Procedure Act cited by Judge Ali doesn’t grant judges carte blanche to issue billion-dollar edicts. Aid groups argue the freeze caused harm, but their remedy lies with Congress, not the courts. The Supreme Court’s failure to check this abuse sets a dangerous stage for future administrations — Republican or Democrat — to be hamstrung by unelected judges wielding unchecked power.

The $2 billion order isn’t just about foreign aid; it’s about who governs. The judiciary has crossed a line, and the executive must push back. Trump should stand firm, not out of defiance, but to defend the Constitution. As Alito warned, the Supreme Court’s misstep “imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers” and rewards “an act of judicial hubris.” It’s time to reject that hubris and restore the balance of power. //

Curtis Hill is the former attorney general of Indiana.

GBenton Indylawyer
4 hours ago
Obama and Biden tried to fundamentally transform America so we could never recover or undo their damage. and Biden was Obama's third term, so the agenda was the same.

Trump is not only doing what he promised, he is tearing out what the dems have built over the past 100 years. If he succeeds, he won't just set them back an election cycle, he'll make it nearly impossible for them to rebuild because he's also changing the culture and the public is getting red pilled on how the Dems have deceived and abused us.

So I can see why Walz and Kamala are the lingering faces of the party - no one with a brain will want to step into this meat grinder.

With ActBlue imploding and Soros in the crosshairs, the Dems may find 2026 and 2028 to be excruciating, especially if we secure the elections with voter ID and paper ballots.

No fraud, no Dem victories, IMO.

All the presidents after Reagan except Trump LIED about what they would do or just failed. Obama wasn't hope and change, he was hate and divide. Biden wasn't a return to normalcy, nor did he build back better, he was a braindead fascist who destroyed everything in his wake.

And Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was total horseshit big government neocon warmongering insanity.

Which is why Trump is blowing minds because he just says what he thinks and then does it. Like him or not, he's not lying.

He does use misdirection and surprise and some deception to keep the enemy on their toes, but he's fundamentally restoring America from the ground up and if the GOP stays the course after 2028 and keeps promises, the Dems are in really, really deep shit.

They can't counter populism with populism lite because no one believes them and Trump occupies that lane and "me too" brands don't tend to work.

Just wait until the crimes and corruption is revealed - the Democrat brand will be radioactive for a generation and Socialism, woke, big government and Communism will be deeply unpopular with the majority of voters. Biden innoculated GenZ from wanting to vote for Dem wokist tyranny.

stripmallgrackle Indylawyer
5 hours ago
We all know that's why the DC establishment pulled out every stop trying to turn him into a national disgrace. They knew he he meant it when he campaigned on the bread and butter promises that every candidate for office has been peddling for decades.

They also know Trump is smart, despite the daily bilge they feed to the media. Worse, the real change Trump is bringing will expose the elites for the lying, self serving scoundrels they are. He's giving voters a real difference in leadership that they can judge future candidates against.

But try telling that to the die hard democrat next door.

The TSA has no legal right to organize, but negotiations were opened with the AFGE to represent TSA screeners in June 2021. The agreement was signed in March 2024.

As an aside, on social media, you routinely read comments to the effect that federal employee unions were created in 1962 by John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10988, and all that is needed to abolish them is to repeal that order. That is utter nonsense. While the Kennedy executive order did open the door, the right of federal employees was codified by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-454), which you can find at 5 USC 71.

This is undoubtedly headed for court because AFGE can't afford to cede this ground without a fight. Because the TSA union does not have Title 5 recognition, the administration will prevail in the end, but we can count on leftist judges to slow things down along the way.

The doctors wheeled Trump out of his room to get a CT scan for a possible concussion. The test came back clean, and Trump wanted the records.

“Can you give me a copy of these?” Trump asked a nurse. “Because I want to make sure I can show reporters that my cognitive function is 100 percent. You can’t say the same about Joe Biden.”

“We can put it on a CD for you,” the nurse said.

“OK,” he said. “We'll release that at a later date.”

I know some people with no sense of humor may read that and think Trump lacked seriousness in the moment, but come on. That's legitimately hilarious, and I figure the rule should be that if you get shot, you can react however you want. Certainly, no one can accuse the president of not keeping his eye on the ball. After all, even though he had been shot, there was still an election to win, and if anything, the stakes had only been raised. //

Biden was about to address the nation about the shooting. Trump was back in his hospital room, and there was no TV. Cheung pulled up a feed from CNN on his phone and they watched. After the president was done, Trump asked to see some of the pictures that had been taken during the attack. One, from the New York Times’s Doug Mills, showed a bullet whizzing by Trump’s head. Another, by the Associated Press’s Evan Vucci, depicted a bloodied Trump defiantly raising his fist, with the American flag behind him.

“Wow, that's iconic,” Trump said. “That's the most American picture I've ever seen.” //

Mike Ford
15 hours ago edited
I know some people with no sense of humor may read that and think Trump lacked seriousness in the moment, but come on. That's legitimately hilarious, and I figure the rule should be that if you get shot, you can react however you want.

It's much, much more than that. Being a leader means being able to be in control in harrowing circumstances. Put another way; the definition of bravery, is being the only one in your vicinity that knows, you are scared shitless.

Leaders owe it to their troops to NOT pass on their own fears and thus make things worse for the people they are supposed to be leading, the people they are responsible for.

As many Christians gather to celebrate Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten liturgical season, President Trump released the most overtly Christian message by any president on any subject in modern history.

This Ash Wednesday, we join in prayer with the tens of millions of American Catholics and other Christians beginning the holy season of Lent—a time of spiritual anticipation of the passion, death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

During the Lenten season, Christians spend 40 days and 40 nights praying, fasting, and giving alms to deepen our faith and strengthen our belief in the Gospel. Today, followers of Christ wear crosses of ash on their foreheads—a sacred reminder of our mortality and our enduring need for Christ’s infinite mercy and redeeming love.

As we solemnly contemplate Jesus Christ’s suffering and death on the cross this Lent, let us prepare our souls for the coming glory of the Easter miracle.

We offer you our best wishes for a prayerful and enriching Lenten season. May Almighty God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.

If this is Christian Nationalism, sign me up. //

The invocation of the name of Jesus Christ has become a rarity in public announcements by officials at any level. Taking Christianity out of the context of the gray, meaningless morass of "Jesus was a great teacher" and moralistic therapeutic deism and talking about the Passion, Death, and Resurrection is unheard of in modern political rhetoric. //

Cynical Optimist
3 hours ago
I would like to add how fabulous I thought it was last night when President Trump told the children in America that they were perfect the way God made them, that there was no child ever born in the wrong body.

jester6
6 hours ago
The Legacy Media Bubble is like a commemorative snowglobe. Those of us outside know the snow is fake and the buildings aren't real. Those living inside think those buildings are their whole world and they are facing an apocalyptic blizzard.

Keep shaking that globe, Donald.

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy (CT) and presumably others encouraged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reject the prospect of a peace deal without so-called "security guarantees" (a euphemism for American military commitments) just before the now-infamous Oval Office blow-out. //

One of the big questions was how we even arrived at that point. What caused Zelensky to walk into the White House with the sense that he could bully Trump in front of the press and scoff at any diplomatic negotiations? A post made by Murphy gives the game away.

Chris Murphy 🟧

@ChrisMurphyCT
·
Follow
Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine.
4:15 PM · Feb 28, 2025. //

Chris Murphy isn't going to be writing Ukraine a check. All he and his cohorts can do is virtue-signal, and that's not winning any battles against Russia. If things are going to be patched up with the Trump White House, Zelensky has to accept that reality and stop believing that he can bully his way to American military commitments by appealing to the press and Democrats.

Trump will only recoil further at that, and he is never going to set up any "security guarantees" that result in U.S. troops fighting Russia. There's still a path for Zelensky to get much-needed aid for his country, but he has to stop operating like it's still 2022, and the first step in that is to stop listening to Democrats who can not help him. //

Soundwave
2 hours ago
The Democrats are vile. Willing to sacrifice the Ukrainians to the Russian meat grinder just to “embarrass” Trump. They disgust me.

As for the Europeans. Feel free to fund the war without us. Let’s see how long you losers last without us paying for your defense. //

Political-Paige
2 hours ago
My question is: what was the end-goal of the Dem interference?
Was it just to create an embarrassment for Trump? If so, that failed. Trump isn't at all embarrassed, and Zelensky was unceremoniously kicked out of the White House.
Was it to assure WW III for their donors? If so, that failed. We aren't engaging.
Was it to get even more freebies for Ukraine? Why? And if so, wow: was that ever a failure.
Or was it simply to interfere for the sake of interference, because they've been rendered irrelevant and need some pretense to power?
I think the last one is most likely.

RedStater In a Blue Apocalypse Political-Paige
9 minutes ago edited
...to interfere for the sake of throwing mud at the wall at every thing they see as an opportunity to oppose. Undermine any successes that Trump could achieve, whether they miscalculate or not.

...because this is what a panicked crew does on a rapidly sinking ship.

They have nothing left to lose.

So this really could have been and should have been a positive moment for Ukraine. And then we go to further negotiating with the Russians, bring this war to an end, and, and move the world forward, stop the death and destruction.

But instead, what became clear, and I think what has the president so, uh, so frustrated, and frankly angry, is that it's not clear that Zelensky truly wants to stop the fighting. And he came in, even though he was warned not to, determined to litigate all that in front of the entire world. And the vice president said enough is enough, the president said enough is enough, and I gotta tell you, this was the wrong approach, wrong time in history, and definitely, the wrong president to try to do this kind of thing. This was not Joe Biden, this was Donald J. Trump. I think the entire world saw that, crystal clear. //

If President Zelensky did, for some indecipherable reason, wish to prolong this conflict, what would he have done differently on Friday? //

anon-fht2
9 hours ago edited
If Molly Hemingway is correct, it WAS an ambush, for Trump. Zelensky has supposedly been in communication wth a Democrat/Deep State team that included Rice, Blinken, and others inluding “somoness” from CIA, DHS, and DoD. According to Hemingway, the operative assumption was that Zelensky would embarass Trump. Trump, anxious to save the deal, would capitulate to Zelensky in the public broadcast, destroying his credibility.

If true, this is treason on the part of Rice, Blinken, and the other Obama gang of idiots involved.

It also proves that a massacre in all the agencies is going to be required to root out resisrance collaborators, with sugnificant penitentiary time placed on some worthy exampples to encourage others to turn. This is a war and to lose is to put Americans in place as no longer citizens , but subjects of the bureaucracy. 2 million plus in th4 government bureaucracy; if a quarter of that still exists a year from now the Deep State will just keep coming back.

One could argue that Arizona Senator and 1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was the pre-Reagan. He was one of the early champions of today's conservatism, of small government and low taxes. He famously said:

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' "interests," I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.”. //

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” Ronald Reagan famously said. No doubt he believed it.

Donald Trump is doing something about it. //

Ron Paul has been happy about this. On February 7, he wrote glowingly, “DOGE is ripping through the federal government like a tornado. This morning it has been reported that DOGE sent out firing notices to 9,400 USAID employees, leaving only 611.”

“Democratic politicians are furious, of course. But we hope that when it’s all said and done, ALL politicians, Democrat AND Republican, are furious with DOGE,” he added.

“Then we will know that it was a job well done for the American people.”

Now here we are, he's trying to bring an end to this conflict, we've explained very clearly what our plan is here, which is we want to get the Russians to the negotiating table, we want to explore whether peace is possible.

They understand this. They also understand that this agreement that was supposed to be signed today was supposed to be an agreement that binds America economically to Ukraine, which to me, as I've explained it, I think the president alluded to today, is a security guarantee in its own way, because we're now involved, it's us, it's our interests. //

I've asked people, what is the European plan to end this war? I can tell you of one foreign minister told me, I'm not going to say who it was, but I can tell you what one of them told me, and that is that the war goes on for another year, and at that point Russia will feel so weakened, that they'll beg for a peace. That's another year of killing, another year of dying, another year of destruction, and by the way, not a very realistic plan in my point of view. //

It takes two sides to end a war, but only one side to perpetuate one. Ending this affair will require both Ukraine and Russia to come to the table. Once the shooting stops, then the parties involved can start talking about how to prevent a recurrence in a year, a decade, or a century hence. But first, the shooting has to stop.