Tag: donald trump

GOP Senators Move to Block Trump Marijuana Reclassification

Republican Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina and James Lankford of Oklahoma are moving to block the Trump administration’s effort to reclassify marijuana under federal law, arguing the move would undermine public safety and bypass Congress.

The two senators this week filed an amendment to a House-passed, three-bill funding package that would prevent the Justice Department from reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act.

Marijuana has been listed as a Schedule I substance since the Controlled Substances Act was signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970, more than five decades ago.

Heroin, LSD, and ecstasy also are classified as Schedule I substances.

The Budd-Lankford amendment would bar the use of federal funds to reschedule marijuana, effectively stopping the Justice Department from carrying out the administration’s directive.

The proposal was formally entered into the Congressional Record this week as lawmakers prepare to debate the spending package in the Senate.

The language mirrors provisions that were recently removed from the appropriations bill during negotiations between House and Senate leaders.

While similar restrictions had advanced through the House Appropriations Committee, they were ultimately stripped from the final package, which passed the House Jan. 8 by a 397-28 vote.

Now, Budd and Lankford are seeking to reinsert the prohibition before the legislation clears the Senate.

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Trump admin quietly restores some funding to Planned Parenthood after lawsuit

The Trump administration has backed down on a portion of the funding it has denied to Planned Parenthood, restoring tens of millions of dollars to the abortion giant in the face of a lawsuit.

Last year, the federal government froze $120 million in federal Title X “family-planning” grants to organizations suspected of not complying with the administration’s executive orders against involvement with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The move did not specifically target Planned Parenthood or abortion, but covered approximately $20 million received by Planned Parenthood locations across a dozen states. 

The abortion lobby and others sued, and Politico reports that the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has withdrawn its lawsuit in response to the Trump administration quietly restoring the funding in question last month. In a December 19 court filing, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said without elaboration that “the review is completed, and all grants at issue for Plaintiff’s members have been restored […] this matter can be voluntarily dismissed in light of the restoration of the remaining grants.”

“More than 800 service sites were unable to provide Title X services. Hundreds of thousands of patients were unable to get Title X services. So the impact was tremendous,” responded Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU’s “Reproductive Freedom Project.” “So damage certainly was done as a result of their unlawful withholding of the funds.”

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President Trump Announces Board of Peace for Gaza is Officially Formed

President Trump announced on Thursday that the international transitional Board of Peace, which will supervise the governance of Gaza, has been formed. 

Trump announced the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by himself, in his 20-point Gaza Peace Plan last September.

On Thursday, he announced that the board has been finalized, and the members will be announced “shortly.”

“I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place,” he said.

Full statement below:

It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed. The Members of the Board will be announced shortly, but I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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War Powers Resolution: The Senate Had One Job

On January 14, a “war powers resolution” went down to defeat in the US Senate on a 50-50 vote, with vice president JD Vance breaking the tie.

The resolution, which would have required US president Donald Trump to at least casually mention to Congress that he planned more military misadventures in Venezuela before, rather than after, launching such misadventures, was a half-hearted half-measure, but somehow only half of US Senators could bring themselves to go even that far.

Let’s go over the way things are supposed to work:

The US Constitution assigns the power to declare war to Congress, not to the president.

If the president attacks another country without such a declaration, it’s not a war, it’s just a crime — a “high crime” legally meriting and ethically requiring that president’s impeachment and removal from office.

Unfortunately, presidents have been getting away with such crimes on a routine basis since the end of World War 2. The list is too long to fit in an op-ed, but a few high points include Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Those conflicts weren’t wars, at least so far as US law was concerned. They were criminal acts carried out by lawless presidents with the acquiescence — and often co-conspiracy — of Congress.

Toward the end of the Vietnam fiasco, Congress passed (and overrode Richard Nixon’s veto of) something called the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

Nixon’s veto message claimed that the Resolution included “unconstitutional restrictions” on his power to kill as many people as he pleased, when and how it pleased him to kill those people.

What it actually included was an unconstitutional — absent ratification by 3/4 of the states’ legislatures — repeal of the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 assignment of the power to declare war solely and exclusively to Congress.

The Resolution supposedly gave the president wiggle room to engage in illegal military operations if he got congressional “authorization” or made up a “national emergency,” and as long as he subsequently bothered to tell Congress about it.

Why would Congress (a notoriously power-hungry body) try so hard to give up its power to declare war? Because if there’s anything a politician hates more than he or she loves power, it’s being held responsible for the consequences of exercising that power. By trying to give up its power, Congress thought it could also rid itself of culpability.

The Senate had one job to do. It wasn’t an especially hard job, it wouldn’t have had any great effect (even if it passed the House, Trump would have vetoed it), and it didn’t even meet the bare minimum constitutional standard.

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Hakeem Jeffries Just Crossed a Dangerous Line That Can’t Be Uncrossed

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just fired a warning shot at the entire Trump administration, and it’s the kind of threat that ought to make every American nervous about what Democrats have in mind if they ever claw their way back to power.

This week on Fox News, Trump advisor Stephen Miller reminded ICE agents that the law is on their side.

“To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony,” he said. “You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one—no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist—can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. And the Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”

It was a simple, clear, factual message, informing them that no matter how much the left attacks them, the Trump administration stands with them. But Jeffries was so triggered by Miller’s message that he wrote a response on X, and it was rather chilling.

“To all members of the Trump administration,” Jeffries wrote, “the incitement and engagement in state violence against the American people is a serious crime. Donald Trump will leave office long before the five-year statute of limitations expires. You are hereby put on notice.”

That wasn’t an empty threat; he means it, and it would be a mistake not to believe he was serious. Hakeem Jeffries literally threatened ICE agents and Trump administration officials with future prosecution for doing their jobs and enforcing the law.

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Trump Reportedly Says Ukraine’s Zelensky, and Not Russia’s Putin, Is Holding up the Peace Deal: REUTERS

Zelensky and his EU Globalists do what they can to impede peace, and cling to some non-starter proposals.

Ever since February 2025, in the infamous Oval Office heated on-camera argument between Donald J. Trump and Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky, it was clear that the US President knew that Ukraine didn’t have the cards, and should settle with Russia as fast as possible, lest they lose more and more territory.

The assessment proved totally correct.

We have been diligently reporting here on TGP on Trump’s peace push for the Russia-Ukraine war ever since before he was inaugurated.

But one aspect stood out: Zelensky didn’t negotiate like the losing party that he is, but rather as the golden boy of Globalism that he also is.

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Pam Bondi Reveals Classified Leaker Behind Trump’s Venezuela Operation Was Pentagon IT Contractor

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has unmasked the traitor behind the illegal leak of classified information about President Trump’s bold Venezuela operation.

Pam Bondi revealed Wednesday night that the individual responsible for leaking classified information about President Trump’s Venezuela operation was an IT contractor for the Department of War and he is now sitting in jail.

The disclosure came during an explosive interview with Sean Hannity, where Bondi confirmed that the Trump DOJ and FBI are aggressively pursuing those who leak classified military intelligence and the media figures who obtain and publish it.

As previously reported by The Gateway Pundit, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Alexandria, Virginia, home of a Washington Post reporter who obtained and reported on classified and illegally leaked Pentagon material.

The reporter, Hannah Natanson, is not the subject of the investigation, but federal agents seized:

  • Her cell phone
  • Two laptops (one personal, one work-issued)
  • A Garmin watch

According to the Washington Post, Natanson was inside her home at the time the warrant was executed.

The search was conducted at the request of the Department of War, according to Bondi.

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Trump threatens Minnesota with Insurrection Act if Walz, Frey ‘don’t obey the law and stop professional agitators’

President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act against Minnesota in response to anti-ICE riots and violence against federal law enforcement in the state. 

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote.

This comes after the January 7 fatal shooting of anti-ICE activist Renee Good after she rammed an ICE agent with her vehicle, and the Wednesday night shooting of a Venezuelan illegal immigrant after he attacked a federal law enforcement agent during an arrest. Both of these shootings occurred in Minneapolis. In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, rioters damaged ICE vehicles and stole documents and weapons from them. On a livestream, agitators showed documents that revealed personal details of federal law enforcement agents that had been taken from the vehicles. 

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US gets first $500 million Venezuelan oil deal, holding some proceeds in Qatar

The Trump administration’s first sale of Venezuelan oil is valued at $500 million, an administration official told Semafor.

The sale marks an initial milestone in the administration’s stewardship of Venezuela after the US ouster of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro, 11 days ago. President Donald Trump has indicated that the US would effectively run Venezuela for an indeterminable amount of time and take control of up to 50 million barrels of its oil — marketing and selling it while distributing the proceeds back to Venezuela in an arrangement with little precedent.

Trump signed an executive order on Friday that provided some details on how the US plans to block courts or creditors from tapping any revenue from those oil sales. Venezuela owes international bondholders, oil companies and others as much as $170 billion — one reason why US firms have been reluctant to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

Trump told ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance last week that the US is “not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault.”

The administration official told Semafor that the interim leadership in Venezuela, led by former Maduro No. 2 Delcy Rodríguez, has “fully cooperated” since the US-Venezuelan energy deal was announced last week, adding that the US has “leverage” through sanctions and oil sales.

Revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US government, as indicated in Friday’s order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar.

The second official described Qatar as a neutral location where money can flow freely with US approval and without risk of seizure. Trump’s order noted that at least some of the revenue would be held in US Treasury accounts.

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Senate GOP blocks vote to limit President Trump’s authority on Venezuela

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to dismiss a war powers resolution that would have limited President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further military action against Venezuela, with two GOP senators reversing their earlier support for the measure.

Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to defeat a Democratic-backed motion after the Senate split 50-50 on a Republican effort to dismiss the resolution.

The outcome followed five Republican senators who originally joined Democrats to advance the legislation last week. Two of those Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, ultimately withdrew their support.

Democrats forced the debate after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month.

“Here we have one of the most successful attacks ever and they find a way to be against it. It’s pretty amazing. And it’s a shame,” President Trump said Tuesday during a speech in Michigan.

President Trump also criticized several Republicans who maintained their support for the resolution, blasting Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Even if the resolution had passed the Senate, it stood little chance of becoming law because it would have required President Trump’s signature.

Lawmakers also cited the release of a heavily redacted 22-page Justice Department memo outlining the legal basis for the operation that captured Maduro. The memo states that the administration currently has no plans for expanded military action.

“We were assured that there is no contingency plan to engage in any substantial and sustained operation that would amount to a constitutional war,” the memo said, signed by Assistant Attorney General Elliot Gaiser.

The administration has justified its actions by citing wartime authorities under the global war on terror, after designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations. It has also characterized Maduro’s capture as a law enforcement operation tied to longstanding U.S. criminal charges.

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