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Tag: reinstates

Trump reinstates ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran

President Donald Trump unveiled an executive order reinstating a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran on Tuesday, coinciding with a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

Trump voiced that he was “torn” on signing the order and admitted he was “unhappy to do it,” noting that that the executive order was very tough on Iran.

“Hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it very much,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

The order instructs the Treasury Department to execute “maximum economic pressure” upon Iran through a series of sanctions aimed at sinking Iran’s oil exports.

His first administration also adopted a “maximum pressure” initiative against Tehran, issuing greater sanctions and harsher enforcement for violations.

TRUMP’S LATEST HIRES AND FIRES RANKLE IRAN HAWKS AS NEW PRESIDENT SUGGESTS NUCLEAR DEAL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with advisers ahead of his meeting with President Trump on Tuesday, February 4th, 2025. (GPO)

Lawmakers are also interested in exerting more pressure on Iran. For example, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Fetterman, D-Penn., along with lawmakers in the House, introduced a resolution on Thursday that affirms that all options should remain on the table in dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat.

Graham said in a statement Thursday that should Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, it would prove “one of the most destabilizing and dangerous events in world history.”

Additionally, Graham said ahead of Netanyahu’s visit that the moment is right to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat now, and that the U.S. should back Israel if it chooses to “decimate” Iran’s nuclear program.

IRAN’S WEAKENED POSITION COULD LEAD IT TO PURSUE NUCLEAR WEAPON, BIDEN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER WARNS

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2024 in Washington, DC.. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“Israel is strong. Iran is weak. Hezbollah, Hamas have been decimated,” Graham said in an interview with Fox News Sunday. “They’re not finished off, but they’ve been weakened. And there’s an opportunity to hit the Iran nuclear program in a fashion I haven’t seen in decades. And I think it would be in the world’s interest for us to decimate the Iranian nuclear threat while we can. If we don’t, we will regret it later.”

Strict sanctions were reimposed upon Iran after Trump withdrew from the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018. The 2015 agreement brokered under the Obama administration had lifted sanctions on Iran, in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Trump signaled in January some optimism about securing a nuclear deal with Iran, when asked if he backed Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

TRUMP’S NEW UKRAINE ENVOY ISSUES WARNING TO IRAN, SAYS ‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE MUST BE REINSTATED’

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they pose for a photo within their meeting at Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on July 26, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“We’ll have to see. I’m going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days,” Trump told reporters on Jan. 24. “We’ll see, but hopefully that could be worked out without having to worry about it.”

“Iran hopefully will make a deal. I mean, they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s OK, too,” Trump said.

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Other executive orders that Trump signed on Tuesday include pulling the U.S. out of the United Nations Human Rights Council and cutting funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.

February 4, 2025
Air Force reinstates Tuskegee Airmen training following backlash from Pete Hegseth and Katie Britt

The Air Force has resumed a course on the first Black pilots unit that was temporarily yanked to ensure compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning DEI in the federal government.

Following backlash from legislators and even the new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Air Force claimed reports it had yanked a course teaching new recruits about the 15,000 Black pilots, mechanics and cooks in the segregated Army of World War II known as the Tuskegee Airmen were “inaccurate.”

However, Hegseth wrote on X Sunday that the course’s removal had been “immediately reversed.”

Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, Air Education and Training Command commander, said in a statement that the segment that included videos on the Tuskegee Airmen was temporarily yanked on Jan. 23 because a section of it that included DEI material was directed to be removed.

A video on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), a paramilitary group of female pilots in World War II, was also temporarily removed.

From left to right, Tuskegee Airmen pilots Lt. Colonel Washington Ross, Lt. Col. Harry Stewart, Colonel Charles McGee and Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson stand next to a Tuskegee Army Airfield AY-6 Texan fighter plane during a ceremony to honor the airmen at Selfridge National Airbase in Harrison Township, Michigan, on June 19, 2012.

“We believe this adjustment to curriculum to be fully aligned with the direction given in the DEI executive order,” he said. “No curriculum or content highlighting the honor and valor of the Tuskegee Airmen or Women Air Force Service Pilots has been removed from Basic Military Training.”

TRUMP’S CRACKDOWN ON TRANS TROOPS: NEW ORDER NIXES PREFERRED PRONOUNS AND RESTRICTS FACILITY USE

“No Airmen or Guardians will miss this block of instruction due to the revision, however, one group of trainees had the training delayed. The revised training, which focuses on the documented historic legacy and decorated valor with which these units and airmen fought for our nation in World War II and beyond will continue on 27 January.”

Gen. David Allvin, Air Force chief of staff, explained further, “Allow me to clearly dispel a rumor – while we are currently reviewing all training courses to ensure compliance with the executive orders, no curriculum or content highlighting the honor and valor of the Tuskegee Airmen or Women Air Force Service Pilots has been removed from Basic Military Training.”

Some 14,000 Tuskegee Airmen served in World War II, including hundreds of its now legendary fighter pilots. (Tuskegee University Archives)

“From day one, I directed our Air Force to implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the president swiftly and professionally – no equivocation, no slow-rolling, no foot-dragging. When policies change, it is everyone’s responsibility to be diligent and ensure all remnants of the outdated policies are appropriately removed, and the new ones are clearly put in place,” he went on in a statement.

“Despite some inaccurate opinions expressed in reporting recently, our Air Force is faithfully executing all the president’s executive orders. Adhering to policy includes fully aligning our force with the direction given in the DEI executive order. Disguising and renaming are not compliance, and I’ve made this clear. If there are instances of less-than-full compliance, we will hold those responsible accountable.”

Before the Air Force announced it would resume training on the airmen on Monday, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., had accused it of “malicious compliance.”

“I have no doubt Secretary Hegseth will correct and get to the bottom of the malicious compliance we’ve seen in recent days. President Trump celebrated and honored the Tuskegee Airmen during his first term,” she said.

Tuskegee Airmen pictured in 1945. (Tuskegee University Archives)

PETE HEGSETH CONFIRMED TO LEAD PENTAGON AFTER VP VANCE CASTS TIE-BREAKING VOTE

“Amen! We’re all over it, Senator. This will not stand,” Hegseth echoed.

WASP were vital to ferrying warplanes throughout World War II. The Tuskegee Airmen, an active fighter unit from 1940 to 1952, were the first soldiers who flew during World War II. The group destroyed more than 100 German aircraft.

The nation’s armed forces were not desegregated until 1948, under an executive order from then-President Harry Truman.

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Trump is expected to issue a new executive order focused on rooting out DEI in the military on Monday, in addition to one restricting accommodations for transgender troops. Another executive order will reinstate service members who were fired over refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

January 27, 2025
President Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions

An executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday will overturn two Biden memorandums and reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which forbids using taxpayer dollars to fund nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

The Mexico City Policy, initiated by the Reagan administration, has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since its creation.

During the Biden administration, the Pentagon paid for service members to travel over state lines for abortions, and Veterans Affairs medical centers were allowed to offer abortion counseling and abortion procedures for service members and their beneficiaries, Fox News Digital previously reported.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20. (Jim Watson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

The administration also provided abortion access to migrants detained at the border, offering transport of unaccompanied pregnant children to states without abortion restrictions.

The White House said that, for nearly five decades, Congress annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, “reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice.”

Nuns arrive to participate in the annual March for Life Friday in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

BLUE STATE ‘RESISTANCE’ REPORTEDLY STOCKPILING ABORTION PILLS IN PREPARATION FOR ANOTHER TRUMP TERM

“However, the previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs,” the White House wrote in a statement. “It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”

Biden’s Presidential Memorandum, Protecting Women’s Health at Home and Abroad, was signed Jan. 28, 2021, and alleged the policy’s restrictions negatively affected women’s reproductive health and undermined U.S. partnerships in global health efforts.

Pro-choice supporters hold signs during a rally. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Trump’s order rescinds two Biden executive actions that promoted access to abortions and included abortion in the definition of “reproductive healthcare.”

The language in the new order clarified the memorandum is “not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) told Fox News Digital the policy “will decrease abortion access in countries around the world.”

“This far-reaching policy defunds health organizations in other countries that provide abortion services or information, even for victims of sexual assault,” CRR said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “Many of these critical organizations will likely shutter as a result or be forced to stop providing or even talking about abortion services.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after being sworn in by Vice President JD Vance in the Vice Presidential Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

CRR representatives also referenced the administration’s Geneva Consensus Declaration Friday night, which is a joint initiative to “secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society; and to work together across the UN system to realize these values,” according to a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The CRR called the declaration “an anti-reproductive rights and anti-LGBTQ political statement” that “intentionally misrepresents itself as an official international agreement, and attempts to undermine the broad legal basis for reproductive rights as human rights.”

“The reinstatement of President Trump’s Global Gag Rule (GGR) and rejoining of the Geneva Consensus are direct assaults on the health and human rights of millions of people around the world,” said Rachana Desai Martin, CRR chief government and external relations officer.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol May 21, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“We saw the devastating impact of the GGR during the last Trump administration when contraception and vital reproductive services were cut off,” Martin added. “There was a spike in pregnancy-related deaths, reproductive coercion and gender inequality worldwide. Many clinics and health programs shuttered, leaving vulnerable populations with nowhere to get birth control, pregnancy care and other vital health services.”

Live Action, a global human rights movement dedicated to ending abortion, posted on X after the order was signed.

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“The Mexico City policy which ensures American tax dollars do not fund killing children internationally through abortion has been reinstated by President Trump!” the post said.

Fox News Digital requested comment from Planned Parenthood and Physicians for Reproductive Health but did not immediately receive a response.

Alexandra Koch is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Prior to joining Fox News, Alexandra covered breaking news, crime, religion, and the military in the southeast.

January 25, 2025