Donald Trump Archives - Page 4 of 34

Trump’s Authortarianism

CrossFireArabia
January 29, 2026

Amnesty International-USA has issued an unprecedented 46-page report on the state of that country’s domestic affairs a year after Donald Trump began his second term on January 20th. The report, “Ringing Alarm Bells,” has traced how the Trump administration’s adoption of authoritarianism is violating human rights in the US and abroad and blocking accountability. The administration’s practices increase “the risk for journalists and people who speak out or dissent, including protestors, lawyers, students, and human rights defenders,” Amnesty said.

The report describes 12 areas in which the Trump administration is undermining the “pillars” supporting the US edifice. Trump is curbing “freedom of the press and access to information, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, civil society organisations and universities, political opponents and critics, judges, lawyers, and the legal system,” and due process. The report “documents attacks on refugee and migrant rights, the scapegoating of [entire] communities and the rollback of non-discrimination protections, the use of the military for domestic purposes…[and] the expansion of surveillance without meaningful oversight.” The adoption of such practices domestically extends to external affairs where international laws meant to protect human rights are being undermined.

Amnesty gave examples of abuses, several are included below. “Students are arrested and detained for protesting on college campuses” and communities are invaded and terrorized” by masked federal agents who are not held accountable. Such activities are “being normalised” across the country. Palestinians who are legal US residents and take part in anti-Israeli protests over Gaza have been targeted, arrested, detained and threatened with deportation.

To exact vengeance against critics, Trump has used the levers of power to “retaliate against, threaten, and coerce elected officials, federal employees and prosecutors, and universities and media outlets.” Trump has used job dismissal, suspension, investigations, withdrawal of security clearances, and denial of federal funding and contracts to attain his objectives in this campaign.

Trump has used state and federal military forces to police protests and support unlawful immigration enforcement. Black and brown demonstrations and restive localities have been disproportionately targeted. After trying to leave the area where there was an anti-deportation protest, Renee Good was shot to death in her car by a federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called her a “domestic terrorist” before any investigation had begun. The local authorities waited for a federal investigation to take over the probe into this incident which has been widely publicised and politicised.

Trump has threatened to invoke the 19th Insurrection Act, a law authorising military deployment to quell Minneapolis protests against his aggressive campaign to identify and deport “illegal” migrants although US citizens have been mistakenly swept up and detained in this effort.

Trump’s Justice Department opened a criminal probe into Minnesota state Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, accusing them of impeding federal immigration operations. Walz charged the Republican administration of “weaponizing the justice system against your opponents.”

Meanwhile, on the international level, Trump has demanded that Denmark hand over to the US Greenland, an integral part of the Danish Kingdom, and threatened European countries backing Denmark with 10-25 per cent tariff punishments. Greenland is not only a strategic island, but it has deposits of precious metals. Denmark and 85 per cent of Greenlanders and 75 per cent of US citizens reject Trump’s bid although he has continued to voice his demand and issue threats against opponents and critics.

He has called for Canada to become the 51t US state despite rejection by the government and citizens. Trump argues that the US must re-acquire the Panama Canal, a choke point in the East-West trade route which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal was built by US engineers between 1903-1914 and was held by the US until handed over to Panama on December 31st, 1999. He falsely claims Russia and China menace both Greenland and the Panama Canal. Trump uses imagined threats to forge new global realities. However, other leaders, countries and populations prefer not to undermine and fracture the status quo which has maintained peace over and in Greenland and Panama as well as between global actors.

The writer is a columnist for the Jordan Times

Analyses

Historical Kick: Weighing The Hit Against Iran

CrossFireArabia
January 14, 2026

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a reprint of an article written by me and posted in 2008 about Israel gearing up to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities. Perceptive is the fact it took Israel and and the USA 17 years, in June 2025, to make a direct hit on Iran and its nuclear facilities. Today, US President Donald Trump, and with the current protests in Iran, is weighing the options for another direct on Iran. However Tehran said it will retaliate with more launches on Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities just as it did last year as well on as US military bases. The reprint is made here with the same title, Weighing the hit against Iran as it appeared in the Media Monitors Network.

Will Israel hit Iran’s nuclear facilities, or won’t they? You would think everyone would be talking about it on the international level, and it might be the case judging from the newspaper articles that are being churned out about a possible nuke followed by regional conflagration.

In Jordan news is in full throttle: Yes Israel is contemplating a hit on Iran and it is in line with its power-hungry policies to dominate the region even if it eventually destroys itself.

Newspapers here see Israel as careless and would not only be prepared for that slippery-slope of a nuclear exchange but would use her nukes as a deterrent force to stop Iran from gaining her own nuclear capability.

Iran is not afraid, saying time and again, her nuclear development is for peaceful purposes and it will have a nuclear capability come what may regardless of what Israel is trying to do and of the international nuclear inspectors monitoring her activities which is more than can be said of Israel whose nuclear reactors and capabilities remain a state secret.

On a more personal level, I briefly talked to my wife about the possible hit in Iran, which I thought was well probable after reading the recent articles, and she just looked and said the issue is being blown out by media talk: There “won’t be war” and it is “media hype”.

Someone else just made fun of the issue. All this was going on when International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammad Al Baradei was warning that if a strike does happen then it will surely turn the region into a ball-fire.

Ball-fire or not, the journalists and media were having a field day, now they say is the best time to strike because US President George W. Bush is nearing his tenure in office and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in trouble over allegation of corruption charges and accepting bribes, and so the theory states if he is going to go then he wants to go in style.

But such reports and opinions are being made when the actual devastation and the far-reaching consequences of a potential strike and the subsequent military and nuclear exchange is underplayed and even treated as a daily occurrence where people will just pick up the pieces and continue with their lives.

People, including the media are not fully aware of what a nuclear exchange would mean, in terms of the scale of human losses, of radiation, devastation, the so-called nuclear winter of darkness, the nuclear holocaust that would actually make the area, the region and the geography completely uninhabitable for many years to come.

While this maybe the case in the West with the media there long tackling these issues, especially at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, here the media has taken more of a sedate view about tackling these subjects especially since more important issues were on the scene.

That is up till now. Seeing the issue as an extension of the Arab-Israeli conflict, today the media is using the possible strike as a point of titillating us into fright regardless of the cynicism of many people like my wife who keep saying its media scare-mongering. But, and regardless again, what is required is a real cold analysis of the situation as it exists.

Would Israel be willing to take a chance and strike, whether military or nuclear, knowing full-will that the present Iran has the long-range missile capability, and knowing also the United States is not too sure and can’t make up its mind about the strike while playing lip service to negotiation and diplomatic talk.

Iran is not Iraq; this is not 1982 when Israeli F 16s flew over the region and bombed the Ozreiq reactor being built by under Saddam Hussein. Despite the fact the Americans are in Iraq, and the Israelis are flexing their muscles against the Palestinians and frequently threatening the Lebanese and Syrians, the security and military environment in the region is changing,

New powers like Iran, Syria, Turkey and non-state actors like Hizbollah and maybe Hamas are increasingly making headways in the region and internationally, and therefore a direct hit on Iran by Israel would not be received at all well by the Europeans who already recognize Israel’s intransigence on the Middle East process regardless if they want to do something about it or not.

Today, Israel’s image is increasingly at stake, an image that has come to be increasingly tarnished since the start of the Intifada in the year 2000, and Israel would definitely not want to rock the boat by seeking to pot practice with its own nuclear war heads and missiles–guessed at 200 in the late 1990s–on states like Iran.

The other important thing to remember is that Israel values its own existence and survival; that’s why it will not practice adventurist measures to the point where it may destroy itself through nuclear striking other nations even though such would be surgical strikes or limited which are nullified for all intense and purpose.

Hence survival is not only a security argument but an ideological one that involves an entity, identity and statehood. An Israeli state even if it does survive a nuclear exchange would probably be sitting in an ocean of radiation still far to be within the parameters of Europe, and certainly too far to remain as the United States valuable ally because if all things are destroyed there would be no need to have a “trusted friend” in the Middle East.

These continue to be in the realm of possibilities and conjectures. However, and against the argument of nuclear hit on Iran is the fact that American troops are in Iraq, in the middle of what would become a “nuclear ball-fire”. This is, unless of course, Israel refuses to give warning and go for the element of surprise and unleashes its weapons against Iran in the hope of preemption, a doctrine the US used for launching its 2003 war to remove Saddam Hussein and destroy his so-called weapons of mass destruction which were subsequently proved false.

News

Trump on Gaza ‘Board of Peace’

CrossFireArabia
January 12, 2026

US President Donald Trump is expected to name world leaders who will form part of a “Board of Peace” to administer the Gaza Strip amid a fragile ceasefire implemented last October, according to reports.

“The Board of Peace is being formed,” Trump told the press aboard Air Force One on Sunday, the Anadolu news agency reported. “Essentially, it’s the most important leaders of the most important nations … You take the most important leaders and nations, that’s who the Board of Peace is going to be.”

The board, which is expected to be chaired by Trump and include around 15 world leaders, will supervise a yet-to-be-formed Palestinian technocratic government and oversee the reconstruction process in Gaza outlined in the US president’s 20-point plan.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that the aim of the board “is to help form an interim government to replace Hamas and to attract a foreign security force as well as funds.”

Bulgarian Diplomat

It is unclear who will be named as members of the board. However, last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and diplomat, “is set to become the Director of the Gaza Strip Board of Peace.” He made the statement following a meeting with Mladenov in Jerusalem.

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/bulgarian-diplomat-set-to-head-trumps-board-of-peace-for-gaza-reports/embed/#?secret=2RQi3w2cmE#?secret=9h5fDjeQXq

Countries expected to join the board include the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye, according to Anadolu.

Details Outlined

On Friday, Palestinian-American academic Dr. Bisharah Bahbah, who reportedly served as a mediator between Hamas and US officials, issued a statement addressed to the “people of Gaza,” on the latest developments.

Bahbah said it is expected that the Gaza Peace Council will be announced “within the next week, with its first official meeting to be held on the sidelines of the Davos meetings in the third week of this month.”

Palestinian factions, he added, are also expected to meet in Cairo next week, following the announcement of the Peace Council’s members.

“During the Cairo meeting, the names of an independent technocratic committee to manage Gaza’s affairs are expected to be announced. The committee is expected to consist of twelve members,” he stated.

Bahbah noted that “the main entities” responsible for managing the reconstruction process are expected to be formed in about thirty days.

Aid Bodies Targeted

He stated that Israel “is currently seeking to withdraw recognition from most international institutions providing aid to the Gaza Strip, arguing that these institutions are hostile to Israel.”

In the future, he noted, aid is expected to be distributed through mechanisms supervised by privately owned companies.

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/undermine-un-european-states-slam-israels-law-targeting-unrwa-ingos/embed/#?secret=HJjuaTh0BB#?secret=J3oYQpKZpz

After the last Israeli body was handed over, Israel “will no longer have a pretext to close the Rafah crossing,” he said, adding that he expects the crossing to be reopened immediately thereafter.

Bahbah emphasized that he is “fully aware” of the extent of the suffering of the Palestinian population “due to the lack of adequate food, healthcare, shelter, and other basic necessities of a dignified life.” He believed “this year will mark a fundamental turning point for the better.”

Staggering Death Toll

Trump unveiled a 20-point plan on September 29, 2025, aimed at ending Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

Despite the ceasefire that took effect in October last year, Israel has killed 442 Palestinians and injured 1,240 more, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The total death toll since it launched its genocidal assault on Gaza two years ago has risen to 71,419, with 171,318 injured according to the Palestine Chronicle.

News

Who is Behind The Protests in Iran?

CrossFireArabia
January 11, 2026

At least 109 Iranian security members were killed during unrest sweeping several parts of the country over the past few days, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel reported Sunday, citing Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.

The outlet did not specify how many protesters were killed.

Iran has been rocked by anti-government protests since Dec. 28 at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, fueled by the sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial and worsening economic conditions. Demonstrations later spread to several cities.

There are no official estimates on casualties, but the US-based rights group HRANA put the toll at 116, with more than 2,600 detained.

A Tehran doctor, however, told Time magazine on condition of anonymity that six hospitals in the capital recorded “at least 217 protester deaths, most by live ammunition.”

In a detailed look at the situation, at least six security members were killed and dozens of protesters were detained as anti-government protests continued to roil Iran, fueled by worsening economic conditions, local media reported on Sunday.

State broadcaster IRIB, citing the country’s prosecutor general Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, said six security members were killed in disturbances in the western province of Kermanshah.

Press TV said Iranian security forces have arrested 200 protest leaders and seized weapons in raids on their houses.

Iran’s police chief Ahmad Reza Radan said coordination between security and law enforcement forces had intensified operations against what he called rioters.

“With proper coordination between security and law enforcement forces, the level of confrontation with rioters has been upgraded,” he said.

He said key elements behind the unrest were arrested last night, saying those detained “will face punishment after completing legal procedures.”

Radan said most of the fatalities in the current wave of protests “died from bladed weapons and knife wounds,” citing forensic findings.

“The shooting distance was very close,” which indicates the acts “were not carried out by security forces but by trained and directed elements,” he said.

Meanwhile Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that his government is determined to address Iran’s economic problems.

Iran’s “enemies are seeking to sow chaos and instability” following the country’s 12-day war last June with Israel, Pezeshkian told the state television.

His remarks were the first since protests that began last month over worsening economic conditions and the record depreciation of the national currency, the rial, turned violent last week.

Pezeshkian condemned recent attacks on public places, including mosques, in Tehran and other Iranian cities, blaming the US and Israel for the violence.

There are no official casualty figures, but some NGOs outside Iran estimate the death toll at 116, including both security forces and protesters, with over 1,000 injured.

Iranian officials have accused Washington and Tel Aviv of backing the increasingly violent protests, particularly in Tehran, where government buildings, banks, buses, and mosques have been set ablaze by armed protesters in recent days.

Internet connectivity has also been suspended across the country.

Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of “training certain groups” inside and outside the country and bringing “terrorists from abroad” to set mosques, markets, and public places on fire.

“They have killed some with weapons, burned others, and beheaded some. Truly, these crimes are beyond our people’s nature. These are not our people. They do not belong to this country. If someone protests for this country, we listen and address their concerns,” he said.

The Iranian president said his government admits to “shortcomings and problems” and is working hard to alleviate the people’s concerns, especially regarding the economy.

“Where in the world are such protests and behaviors accepted as protests? If this happened in the US, would Americans allow it? Would Europeans allow it? If someone attacked a military base or city center, would they say: ‘Go ahead and loot it’,” he said.

He insisted that those attacking public property are not protesters, but rioters, adding that the government is willing to meet with and listen to those who have legitimate concerns.

Pezeshkian said the US and Israel tried to bring Iranians “to their knees” during the 12-day war in June but failed, and now seek to do the same through “riots.”

“We will build this country with the people’s help and stand firmly against the external conspiracies and riots, with the help of producers and merchants. We will stop them with power,” he said, offering condolences to those who have died in the ongoing protests.

Before the protests turned violent on Thursday night, US President Donald Trump tweeted that the US would “come to the rescue” of Iranian protesters if the government used lethal force against them.

His remarks drew sharp criticism from top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, security chief Ali Larijani, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of instigating Iranian youth.

“The same people who destroyed this country and killed our youth and children now instruct these rioters to destroy more.”

He reassured the public that his government will work to solve their problems and urged families “not to let their youth mix with rioters and terrorists who kill and behead.”

“Protest if you must; we will listen and solve your concerns. Let us work together to solve problems. But worsening the country’s economic situation through chaos serves no one,” he said according to Anadolu.

Analyses

For Israel The ‘Yellow Line’ is Occupation

CrossFireArabia
December 21, 2025

By Ismail Al Sharif

Two months after the signing of the ceasefire, that remains merely ink on paper, the region is yet to witness a fundamental shift to the second phase: A transition from a strategy of destruction to a withdrawal mechanism, and from the logic of military operations to a framework of international administration, paving the way for a political process to ultimately lead to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.

However, the realities on the ground today proves this path is nothing more than a theoretical assumption quickly crumbling in the face of a complex reality.

Two months after the supposed ceasefire, a completely different truth emerges; Israel continues its ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian civilians are dying from the bitter cold, just as they previously perished from the bombardment, while unilateral decisions are being made whilst deepening the chasm of mistrust between the parties supposedly partnering in ending this humanitarian tragedy and implementing the Donald Trump plan, who claims to have ended a three-thousand-year-old war.

What was supposed to be a temporary withdrawal line for the Israeli army has, according to its generals, become a new de facto border called the “Yellow Line,” swallowing up more than half of the Gaza Strip.

Early this month, the army’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir addressed his troops, asserting Israel “now exercises effective control over vast areas of the Strip” and its military units “will maintain their positions on these defensive lines.” He explicitly declared “the Yellow Line represents a new border of an advanced line of defense to protect Israeli society, and serves as a framework for the ongoing military operational activity.”

From these comments it can be understood the ceasefire line is no longer a temporary, transitional measure, but has effectively become a forcibly-imposed border, a permanent defensive zone, and a legal framework that legitimizes a long-term Israeli military presence within territories that, until recently, were an integral part of the Palestinian territories.

These pronouncements are not merely political rhetoric. The “Yellow Line” is now embodied on the ground by massive, yellow-painted concrete blocks that bisect the Gaza Strip to a depth of between 1.5 and 6.5 kilometers. Before the recent escalation, the Strip extended about 41 kilometers in length and between 6 and 12 kilometers in width. As it stands however, Israel has tightened its grip on more than half of this area in one of the world’s most densely-populated regions. This has exacerbated overcrowding, drastically reduced usable land, and devastated the agricultural sector, thus intensifying the humanitarian catastrophe, entrenching mass forced displacement, deepening the destruction, and contributing to the complete collapse of the institutional infrastructure.

The Zamir statements cannot be separated from the context of the pronouncements of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, who, from northern occupied Palestine, spoke of the expansion of his northern and northeastern borders by establishing a demilitarized buffer zone from the Syrian capital, Damascus, to the occupied Golan Heights. This is being made with the advance of his military forces into the UN-monitored buffer zone and the occupation of the Syrian side of Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh). Also, Israel is presently establishing establishing a “buffer zone” in the territory of southern Lebanon, destroying border villages and/or leaving them completely depopulated and deploying military reinforcements at strategic border points to impose a new security and geopolitical reality by force.

According to the Trump’s plan the second phase was supposed to begin after Hamas fulfilled its commitment to release all Israeli captives, both alive and deceased, and after Netanyahu announced his readiness to move to this phase.

However, this transition was contingent on two fundamental conditions: The deployment of international peacekeeping forces and the complete disarmament of Hamas. Herein lies the complexity of the issue; Netanyahu has publicly expressed skepticism about the ability of any international force to carry out the disarmament mission and has categorically stated that Hamas’s disarmament will be achieved through coercive military means and under the direct supervision of Israeli forces.

In contrast, Hamas maintains its categorical refusal to disarm except within a comprehensive framework that includes the formation of a unified Palestinian ‘technocratic” government and a complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. At a minimum, Hamas has expressed its willingness to store its weapons within an agreed-upon mechanism as part of a comprehensive political process, as confirmed by Bassem Naim, a member of the movement’s political bureau, in recent statements.

The current situation reveals that Israel is treating the existing circumstances as a strategic opportunity to expand its geographical borders and exert maximum pressure on the Palestinian people, paving the way for what it calls “voluntary displacement” under a humanitarian pretext—a pretext it itself created.

Simultaneously, it is deliberately and systematically obstructing the transition to the second phase of the Trump agreement by continuing its policies of occupation, killing, and destruction under the guise of a ceasefire.

It is clear this arrangement serves its strategic interests and intersects with broader Western interests, with the ultimate result being the aborting of any chance of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, and keeping the Gaza Strip – as it has always been – a besieged enclave, which Israel exploits to achieve its political agenda and strengthen its internal cohesion, and turning it into a field laboratory in which various military weapons, biological tools and advanced technological techniques are tested, but with a reduction in the population, which allows it to continue what is strategically known as “managing the conflict” in the long term.

This article by Ismail Al Sharif was originally written in Arabic for the Addustour daily and published in Crossfirearabia.com.