Pro-RFK Jr. letter to the Senate includes names of doctors whose licenses were revoked or suspended

Michelle R. Smith
Fri, January 31, 2025 



PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A letter submitted to the U.S. Senate that states it was sent by physicians in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services includes the names of doctors who have had their licenses revoked, suspended or faced other discipline, The Associated Press has found.

The letter was meant to lend credibility to Kennedy’s nomination, which has faced strenuous opposition from medical experts due to his two decades of anti-vaccine activism. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a medical doctor who boasts on his official website of an effort he created to vaccinate 36,000 children against hepatitis B, expressed hesitancy about Kennedy's nomination and is seen as a key vote.

The AP found that in addition to the physicians who had faced disciplinary action, many of the nearly 800 signers are not doctors. The letter with the names of those who signed was provided to the AP by Sen. Ron Johnson’s office after he entered it into the Congressional Record on Wednesday during the first of Kennedy’s two confirmation hearings.


Among those who signed it were a self-described journalist, a certified public accountant, a firefighter/paramedic, a certified health coach and someone who said they had a bachelor’s degree “with an emphasis on Jungian Psychology.” The signers include at least 75 nurses, as well as physician's assistants. More than 90 did not include any credentials at all.

Over 20 were chiropractors, representing an industry that has funded Kennedy's work. An AP investigation found that donations from a chiropractic group represented one-sixth of the revenues collected by Kennedy's anti-vaccine nonprofit in 2019.

The letter was organized and submitted by MAHA Action, which is run by Del Bigtree, who worked for Kennedy’s presidential campaign and is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Kennedy transferred the trademark for the “MAHA” slogan to an limited liability company run by Bigtree. Kennedy reported that he received $100,000 in income from licensing the slogan and said in his financial disclosures that he had transferred the trademark for “no compensation.”

MAHA stands for “Make America Healthy Again,” a play on President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again."

Emma Post, a MAHA Action spokesperson, said in an email that the letter was “shared and circulated organically in a grassroots manner with explicit instructions that it was for physicians only to sign on to.” She did not address the AP’s questions about what further steps the group took to verify credentials, if any.

Bigtree and Kennedy did not return messages seeking comment. A White House spokesman, Kush Desai, said the administration looks forward to the Senate's swift confirmation of Kennedy.

The letter includes the header “ Doctors for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ” and begins with the words, “We, the undersigned physicians." It says lower down that it “reflects the collective voice of physicians and medical professionals” committed to addressing chronic disease.

The AP’s review found that at least 10 doctors who signed the letter had run into trouble with state medical boards or their board certification body for a variety of alleged misconduct. Sanctions they faced included having their license revoked or suspended, being put on probation, receiving a reprimand or other action. One received a warning letter from the Federal Trade Commission, which said he was unlawfully advertising products as treatments or prevention for COVID-19, including intravenous nutrient therapy and vitamins.

Among the signers was Paul Thomas, an anti-vaccine doctor who voluntarily surrendered his medical license in 2022 after Oregon's medical board found he had engaged in repeated and gross negligence in the practice of medicine.

Thomas did not admit or deny the finding. NBC News reported that Thomas was part of a team assembled by Kennedy who remotely advised an anti-vaccine activist in Samoa during a measles outbreak there on how to treat children with vitamins. A person who responded on behalf of Thomas, DeeDee Hoover, said the information the AP had was inaccurate but did not reply when asked what specifically was wrong.

Other signers included Dr. Simone Gold, who was reprimanded by California’s medical board after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for her conduct at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Gold was recently pardoned by Trump and told the AP in an email that her reprimand and other disciplinary action were overturned by a judge prior to her pardon.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an honorable and honest person with vast subject matter knowledge and experience who values the health of the American people, and furthermore because he is willing to challenge corporate interests where they conflict with the best interests of those citizens,” Gold wrote in an email.

Meryl Nass, whose medical license was suspended in Maine over her treatment of COVID-19 patients, also signed. She told the AP she is appealing the decision and expects to be fully vindicated.

At least two of the doctors were disciplined, prior to the pandemic, for improperly giving out vaccine waivers, including one who had his license revoked and another who was put on probation. Another doctor's license was revoked for refusing to follow COVID-19 guidelines.

Post said MAHA Action’s letter was just one of several provided to the Senate supporting Kennedy, including one that she provided a link to that she said was signed by “17,000 medical professionals.” That letter stated it was from international medical providers and did not include the names of those who signed.

Opponents of Kennedy's nomination sent their own letter with signatures from what they said were more than 18,000 “vetted and verified” doctors. The group, the Committee to Protect Health Care, said that the letter was initially circulated among verified physicians and that as additional signatures were added, their credentials were checked. The group provided the list of signatories to the AP but with anonymized names that included the first initial of their first name along with the first three letters of their last name, as well as their medical credentials. They said doctors' names were anonymized for their privacy and to protect them from harassment.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press

Raft Of US Government Websites Go Dark Or Remove Key Information About Diversity In Trump Purge

Information and data from numerous departments disappeared after a memo instructing federal employees to eliminate material related to "gender ideology" and other topics.

By Lil Kalish, Matt Shuham, and Jonathan Cohn

HUFFPOST

Jan 31, 2025,

The Trump administration on Friday appeared to take down data and information from a variety of government websites, with a focus on information related to gender diversity, sexual health and climate change. In some cases entire websites disappeared. Others remained online, but had critical information missing.

The changes to government websites, as well as the blockages in the flow of grant money the administration announced earlier this week, appeared part of a whole-of-government effort to erase mention of topics deemed incompatible with President Donald Trump’s executive orders seeking to marginalize transgender people and pushing back against material purportedly associated with “DEIA,” or diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, initiatives.

Among the many affected websites Friday: The U.S. Census Bureau’s homepage, which appeared to be experiencing intermittent outages. Compared to archived versions, the National Institutes of Health Office on Research and Women’s Health appeared significantly pared down, as was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions’ Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which returned an error when accessed Friday evening. NPR noted the program is “the nation’s largest monitoring program on health-related behaviors among high schoolers.”

The Bureau of Prisons website now displays only male and female populations. It used to include data on the number of trans people in custody, according to an archived version.

Numerous webpages for the CDC’s HIV prevention division, especially those about efforts to address health disparities among Black, Latino and transgender communities, were not online. By Friday, the main webpage for HIV, HIV data, details about “Ending the HIV Epidemic,” and information on PrEP, the preventive drug used to reduce the risk, were also not available. Other CDC sites about LGBTQ youth, including pages focused on risks of suicide among LGBTQ children, school safety, and health disparities were all still inaccessible as of Friday night.

Similarly, Target HIV, a website that provides technical assistance and training resources to agencies and medical facilities that receive federal funding from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program — which is run by HHS to provide treatment to low-income people living with HIV — was “under maintenance.”

The deletions are part of a wider ideological purge undertaken by the Trump administration and fulfill some of the policy promises outlined in Project 2025.

Over the last week Trump signed several executive orders barring federally funded hospitals and clinics from providing gender health care to trans people younger than 19; requiring the promotion of “patriotic education” while limiting any teaching of any material that includes “gender ideology,” broadly defined; and redefining “sex” to exclude transgender people from legal recognition. Already, Trump’s directives have halted coverage of gender-affirming for youth on federal insurance plans.

Government agencies did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Friday, making it impossible to confirm whether any or all of these changes were intentional — and, if so, who ordered them and why, or when some of the information might come back online.

However, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services told changes to its website were “made in accordance with” recent executive orders from the Trump administration prohibiting DEI content and official recognition of — or references to — trans Americans.

Some of the efforts appeared connected to a Wednesday memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s human resources hub and a key nexus for political activity by the Trump administration. Reuters reported Friday that aides of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s “government efficiency” cheerleader, had locked career staff out of computer systems containing millions’ of federal employees personal data.

Among other things, the memo instructed departments to terminate any programs, contracts or grants that “promote or inculcate gender ideology,” and to stop any pending plans and take down outward-facing communications that did the same. The document demanded the actions be taken by Friday at 5 p.m. ET., and directed questions to the email address “defendingwomen@opm.gov.”

CNN reported on one unnamed senior health official who said staff were warned of severe consequences for violating the memo. The same official said websites were taken down in order to comply with the memo, and that “in the process, large swaths of data and science will be unavailable for an undetermined period.”

“Regardless of your comfort with the idea of trans people, you should be terrified that the government is purging truth and science to fit an ideology, because what’s next?” the official added, CNN reported.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, employees were told that any pronouns in email signatures “must be removed,” according to a memo obtained by HuffPost.

Outside contractors working with one agency were told to terminate any government contracts that “promote or inculcate gender ideology” and included a list of words including “gender, transgender, inclusivity, nonbinary” and “they/them” pronouns, according to a separate email obtained by HuffPost.

The decision to take down the website for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System — which measures things like tobacco use and sexual behavior — was made in order to comply with Trump’s “Defending Women” executive order, an unnamed person familiar with the matter told NPR.

The impact of the memo already appears to have stretched beyond Washington. A Kentucky-based health department that relies on millions of dollars in federal grants to fund their health equity programs received a letter this week to terminate all “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs, according to material obtained by HuffPost.

The crackdown also extended to government-funded research: Science reported Thursday that the National Science Foundation had frozen previously-promised funding to an unknown number of its thousands of grant recipients, searching for research work deemed in violation of Trump’s new rules against “woke gender ideology,” diversity efforts and similar edicts.

NSF officials hadn’t provided any indication of how long the review would take, leaving investigators “wondering how to meet payrolls and buy and maintain essential equipment and supplies,” according to the report.

Among the projects threatened by the funding freeze were projects as apolitical as an earthquake monitoring system, the publication reported separately.

The outages appeared to potentially extend to several of Trump’s political priorities: At the USDA, for example, an internal email ordered employees to delete landing pages related to climate change, Politico reported Friday. While some pages remained active, others, like the department’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities page, “appeared mothballed,” the website reported.

Asked about talk that government websites would be shut down Friday evening to “scrub them of DEI content,” Trump didn’t confirm the reports directly, but said it “doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me.

AMERIKA'S WORD IS WORTH SHIT

Trump prepares to revoke legal status for many migrants who arrived under Biden

Priscilla Alvarez, 

CNN
Sat, February 1, 2025 


Migrants from Nicaragua heading to the US in Trojes, Honduras, on June 10, 2022.


The Trump administration is preparing to revoke legal status for many migrants who entered the United States under a Biden-era program, according to a source familiar with the planning, expanding the pool of people who could be deported.

The move is expected to affect migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti who arrived during President Joe Biden’s term under a humanitarian parole program and were allowed to temporarily live and work in the US. More than 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans arrived to the US under the program.

Some are eligible for other programs that could protect them from deportation. But if they have not pursued other legal avenues to remain in the US, they may be eligible for removal, according to the source.

It’s the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to strip temporary protections for migrants already residing in the United States.

Republicans slammed Biden’s use of the humanitarian parole program, arguing that his administration exceeded its authority in its use of the program. In his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a review of parole.

Biden administration officials argued the so-called humanitarian parole authority helped drive down illegal border crossings by giving people a legal pathway to the country. The program required that migrants have a sponsor in the US, undergo screening and vetting, and complete vaccinations.

The proposal, first reported by CBS News, is still being finalized.

Many of those who arrived under the humanitarian parole program have been in the US for less than two years. Trump officials expanded a procedure to speed up deportations to include undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US who cannot prove they’ve lived in the country continuously for two years or more.

The fast-track deportation procedure, known as “expedited removal,” allows immigration authorities to remove an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge. Migrants stripped of parole may be eligible for speedy deportation.

Hegseth Pal Gloats After Booting Legacy Media from Pentagon

Joey McFadden
Sat, February 1, 2025 

A source close to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has expressed glee at booting mainstream media from a Pentagon facility to make way for MAGA outlets.

“Hope those hit pieces on Pete were worth it,” the unnamed source told Axios after the decision to remove four major news outlets from the Pentagon’s Correspondents’ Corridor.

The New York Times, NBC News, NPR, and Politico have to vacate the Pentagon in two weeks. They will be replaced by Trump-friendly outlet the New York Post, full MAGA supporters One America News Network and Breitbart, as well as the left-leaning Huffington Post, which did not request a spot at the Pentagon.

While the source did not specify the “hit pieces,” former Fox News star Hegseth’s troubled past of heavy drinking, alleged sexual assault, admitted serial infidelity and alleged financial incompetence had been widely reported after his nomination by Donald Trump to lead the Pentagon.

This move comes amid a massive purge of Trump’s perceived enemies within the federal government. White House sources told Axios that the largest purge of government employees in history is “just the beginning.”

Head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, shut senior government workers out of the Office of Personnel Management’s HR database and has now reportedly been granted full access to the federal payment system.

The Trump administration also froze $3 trillion in federal funds to root out “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” from the federal government. A D.C. judge blocked the freeze.

Trump also offered all government employees a buyout with pay and benefits until Sept. 30, in an apparent effort to purge the government of progressives.

Pete Hegseth was captured shortly before midnight in December 2017, clearly drunk at a colleague’s wedding. He appeared on the air early the next morning. / Obtained by The Daily Beast

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove singled out several FBI senior executives who were told they would be fired if they did not retire by Monday.
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Bove also requested the names of all FBI officials who worked on investigations related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which likely includes thousands of people.

These decisions come amid a highly publicized plane crash in Washington, D.C., in which 67 people died, for which Trump blamed DEI policies. Within 24 hours of the crash, the Trump administration emailed FAA employees asking them to take the massive buyout.

President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Nick Daniels, told The New York Times he was “concerned” about the purges during an already existing “shortage” of air traffic controllers.

One air traffic controller was reportedly doing the job of two controllers on the night of the crash.

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg called Trump’s comments “despicable” and said Trump should “show actual leadership” to prevent future accidents.

Defense Department To Boot NBC News, New York Times And Other Media From Workspaces As Part Of New Rotation; Trump-Friendly Outlets To Get Spots

Ted Johnson
Sat, February 1, 2025
DEADLINE

Major press organizations are expressing concern after the Defense Department announced changes that mean that NBC News, The New York Times, Politico and National Public Radio will no longer have dedicated workspaces at the Pentagon.

Instead, according to a memo sent to news organizations, there will be a media rotation program, with new outlets taking the spot of a legacy TV, print, radio and online news site. Those getting space include outlets with a long history of favorable coverage of Donald Trump — One America News Network and Breitbart News Network, as well as the New York Post, which leans right. The other outlet, HuffPost, leans left.

John Ullyot, a Pentagon spokesperson, wrote in a letter to news outlets that the changes are part of an effort to “broaden access to the limited space” of the Correspondents’ Corridor to outlets “that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalistic value of working from physical office space” at the Defense Department. He said that the rotations would occur annually, and the outlets that vacate “the spaces loaned to them by the Secretary” will continue to have the same access to the Pentagon to cover briefings and to be considered for travel with civilian and military leaders.

The Pentagon Press Association said that it recognized the expansion of the press corps but they were “deeply troubled by this unprecedented move by DOD to single out highly professional media who have covered the Pentagon for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.”

Mike Balsamo, president of the National Press Club, said, “The National Press Club is deeply concerned by the Defense Department’s decision to remove certain media organizations from their dedicated spaces in the Pentagon. Any action that restricts the ability of journalists to report on the operations of the U.S. government should alarm all who value transparency and press freedom.”

The changes were announced just a week after the Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host, as the new secretary of defense. The media outlets who have been told to vacate their workspaces all reported on his rocky confirmation process, with reports of his heavy drinking and an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in a 2017 incident. Hegseth has denied the allegations. He was confirmed in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie.

NBC News said in a statement, “We’re disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades. Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has.”

An NPR spokesperson said, “This decision interferes with the ability of millions of Americans to directly hear from Pentagon leadership, and with NPR’s public interest mission to serve Americans who turn to our network of local public media stations in all 50 states. NPR will continue to report with vigor and integrity on the transformation this Administration has promised to deliver. NPR urges the Pentagon to expand the offices available to press within the building so that all outlets covering the Pentagon receive equal access.”

The HuffPost did have a press pass for the Pentagon, but did not ask for a designated workspace. Lizzie Grams, a spokesperson for the outlet, said, “If the Trump Administration and Secretary Hegseth are interested in more hard-hitting coverage of their stewardship of the Defense Department from HuffPost, we are ready to deliver.”

An OAN spokesperson said in a statement, “OAN has operated a DC News Bureau continuously since 2013 with daily live reporting from multiple government locations. OAN continues to seek similar access extended to other national television news outlets operating daily in Washington, DC. OAN is dedicated to providing its viewers fair and accurate daily reports from the Pentagon.”

The New York Post said, “We devote substantial coverage to defense-related issues. As one of the biggest, most engaged and far-reaching media brands in the country, it only makes sense for us to have a reporter at the Pentagon.”

Pentagon Removes NBC News, NYT, Other Media From Offices in New Rotation Program

Josh Dickey
Sat, February 1, 2025

 TheWrap.



The Pentagon will begin a new annual rotation program for media that requires several outlets, including NBC News, the New York Times and National Public Radio, to vacate their physical offices to allow for others – like Breitbart News, the New York Post and One America News Network – to get their turn.

The Friday announcement from the Department of Defense, now led by former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, will also remove Politico from its established in-house workspace.

The outgoing news orgs learned about the directive in a wide memo without individual notification or additional explanation, and takes effect in two weeks. The move comes a week after Hegseth was confirmed in the Senate by a narrow margin.

“For over a half-century, the Pentagon Press Corps has benefited from working out of individual office spaces that provide coveted and open access to some of the Department’s top military and civilian leaders,” reads the memo, from Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot.

NBC News said it was disappointed by the decision “to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades. Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has.”

The new outlets rotating in are One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News Network and HuffPost as new organizations that will rotate in and out from the space.

“This move to expel The Times and other independent, fact-based news outlets from the Pentagon’s press spaces is a concerning development,” the NYT wrote in a Saturday statement. “The Department of Defense has the largest discretionary budget in the government, millions of Americans in uniform under its direction and control of a vast arsenal funded by taxpayers. The Times is committed to covering the Pentagon fully and fairly. Steps designed to impede access are clearly not in the public interest.”

The Pentagon is changing which media outlets have the closest access

John L. Dorman
Sat, February 1, 2025 

BUSINESS INSIDER 

The Pentagon will replace some large media outlets that have long had desks inside the Pentagon.


Outlets like NBC News and The New York Times will lose their space.


It's part of a "rotation program" that allows different media outlets to work from the Pentagon.

The Defense Department said it is implementing a new "annual media rotation program," which means some legacy media outlets — like The New York Times and NBC News — will lose their longtime Pentagon workspaces to a slate of new publications.

In a major shake-up for the Pentagon's "Correspondents' Corridor," Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Ullyot announced in a memo to the Pentagon Press Association that The New York Times, NBC, National Public Radio, and Politico would all have to vacate their office space in the building.

The sought-after space will be offered instead to The New York Post, Breitbart News, One America News Network, and The Huffington Post.

The changes — which the memo said were intended to "broaden access to the limited space of the Correspondents' Corridor" — are set to take effect on February 14.

"Each year, one outlet from each press medium — print, online, television, and radio — that has enjoyed working from a physical office in the Pentagon will rotate out of the building to allow a new outlet from the same medium that has not had the unique opportunity to report as a resident member of the Pentagon Press Corps," the memo read.

Ullyot also said in the memo that access to the Pentagon would remain unchanged for the publications that have been removed from their traditional office spaces.

"They will continue to enjoy the same media access to the Pentagon and will be able to attend and cover briefings and be considered for travel with civilian and military leaders in the Department as they have previously," the memo read.

In a statement to Business Insider, NPR urged the Department of Defense to "expand the offices available to press" at the Pentagon.

"This decision interferes with the ability of millions of Americans to directly hear from Pentagon leadership, and with NPR's public interest mission to serve Americans who turn to our network of local public media stations in all 50 states," the statement read.

New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander told BI that the newspaper is "committed to covering the Pentagon fully and fairly."

"This move to expel the Times and other independent, fact-based news outlets from the Pentagon's press spaces is a concerning development," Stadtlander said. "Steps designed to impede access are clearly not in the public interest."

NBC News said in a statement it was "disappointed" by the decision.

"Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has," the outlet said.

In January, the Senate narrowly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaker after three Republicans joined every Democrat in rejecting his nomination — a significant departure from the broad support that the GOP-controlled Senate has so far granted to most of President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees.

The outlets who will have to vacate their Pentagon workspaces all covered Hegseth's tumultuous confirmation process, during which he faced questions about alcohol abuse and sexual assault accusations stemming from a 2017 incident.

Hegseth, who was sworn into his new role on January 25, has denied the allegations.

The Defense Department's move also comes as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced earlier this week that the Trump administration would be granting access to the White House press briefing room to "new media" — which includes TikTok content creators and podcasters.

Donald Trump says he stopped $50 million for condoms going to Gaza. Is it true?

Michael Collins, USA TODAY
Updated Sat, February 1, 2025 

WASHINGTON – It was an astounding revelation, one that Donald Trump’s White House was eager to share with the American public.

The Trump administration, eager to stop wasteful government spending, halted the distribution of $50 million in taxpayer dollars set aside to buy condoms to be sent to Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at her first press briefing Tuesday.

The next day, Trump drew chuckles from the crowd gathered for a bill signing in the White House East Room when he repeated a variation of the same story, claiming his administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.”

The problem: There’s no evidence it’s true.

“You are not finding any evidence of that because it simply cannot be true,” said Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics.

President Donald Trump

For years, the U.S. government has provided millions of dollars worth of condoms and other contraceptives to foreign countries as a way to help prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV and to make sure that family planning is available in developing nations.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, the government agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, said in a report last April that it had spent $61 million in 2023 to provide condoms and other contraceptives to other countries.

But just $8 million of that went for the purchase of condoms, the report said. And not a cent was used to send condoms to Gaza.

Between 2016 and 2022, the agency spent $118 million to buy condoms for 60 countries – an average of about $17 million per year, according to a separate report released in 2023. None of those went to Gaza either.

More: Trump floats plan to 'just clean out' Gaza, move Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan

Asked to back up its claim, the White House referred to a State Department statement that said the administration had stopped “two $50 million buckets of ‘aid’” headed to Gaza through the International Medical Corps, a nonprofit humanitarian assistance organization based in Los Angeles.

“The $100 million for these programs included contraceptives,” the statement said. “Condoms have traditionally always been used for family planning in developing countries by USAID.”

The White House did not respond to an inquiry about how much of the $100 million it paused was to be used to purchase condoms.

The answer: None of it, according to the International Medical Corps.

The organization has received $68 million from USAID since 2023 to support its operations in Gaza, including two large field hospitals that provide medical care to roughly 33,000 civilians a month in a dangerous environment where the healthcare infrastructure has been decimated, said Todd Bernhardt, the group’s spokesman.

The corps provides lifesaving activities such as surgical and post-operative care for trauma, emergency maternal and newborn care, neonatal intensive care and pediatrics, orthopedics, pulmonology and cardiology care, Bernhardt said.

“No U.S. government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms,” Bernhardt said.

Humanitarian groups defend the use of government funding to send condoms and other contraceptives to foreign countries, saying they are essential to stopping the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and making sure that people have access to family planning in countries where it otherwise may not be available.

Most of the condoms and contraceptives purchased with government funds have gone to countries in Africa that are still dealing with a significant AIDS epidemic. Some of the contraceptives have been distributed through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a global health initiative started by George W. Bush.

“Ensuring that people in Africa, but also in other low- and middle-income countries, have access to condoms is one of the most important parts of the AIDS response and one that the United States has been funding and should be funding,” said Kavanagh, the Georgetown global health expert.

More: Judge temporarily blocks Trump policy that aimed at freezing federal grant funding

Family planning is also important to help women survive in countries where poverty and the maternal mortality rate are high or in places where quality health care is unavailable, said Beth Schlachter of MSI Reproductive Choices, which works to make sure contraception is accessible around the world.

“If you are a woman living in Gaza over the last year, it’s not the ideal time to get pregnant,” said Schlachter, a former population policy adviser for the State Department. “Providing family planning or contraceptives is a routine part of humanitarian assistance because women bring their uteruses with them when they are in a time of crisis and they still need all the reproductive health care they would need at any other time in their life.”

Even so, humanitarian groups said the administration’s claim that $50 million was about to be spent to send condoms to Gaza is absurd.

“Condoms cost four cents (to make), so $50 million in condoms is over a billion condoms,” Kavanagh said. “There’s only a million adults in Gaza. I did a quick calculation, and I think on average that would be three condoms per day for every adult in Gaza. That’s not happening.”

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY





No Evidence Hamas Used US-Funded Condoms for Bombs as Trump Claimed

Nur Ibrahim
Fri, January 31, 2025 at 4:49 PM MST·6 min read
153


Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


In late January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration made a claim that they stopped millions of taxpayer dollars from being used to fund condoms in Gaza. On Jan. 29, 2025, Trump said, "We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. … And you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs."

Trump made the claim at the 15:00 mark in the video below:


As Snopes reported on Jan. 29, 2025, there is no evidence that $50 million was spent to buy condoms for Gaza. As such, there is no proof that such U.S.-funded condoms are being used by the militant group Hamas to make bombs. However, we came across reports of Palestinians in Gaza using condoms, balloons and other items to airdrop small incendiary devices into Israel in 2020, during the last Trump administration. Those actions took place at a different time, and there is no evidence tying them to Trump's claims in early 2025.

We analyzed the first part of Trump's claim: that U.S. funding paid for condoms in Gaza. In our past reporting, we looked at recent data from U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and spoke to representatives at Anera and the International Medical Corps, which are relief organizations that received U.S. funding for health care in Gaza.

We learned that no funds were sent from USAID to Anera or the International Medical Corps for contraceptive purposes or condom purchases in the 2023 fiscal year. The organizations were focused on providing basic medical facilities on the ground after Israeli military bombardments destroyed most of Gaza's health care facilities.

We then looked into the second part of Trump's claim: that Hamas was using U.S.-funded condoms to build bombs. Given that there is no proof the U.S. was funding condoms in Gaza in the first place, the claim that Hamas was using them to create bombs is outlandish at best.

However, it is likely that the claim emerged from 2020 reports about Palestinians in Gaza who used a range of items to send incendiary devices into Israel, including balloons and condoms. According to a Washington Post report from March 2020, over several months, balloons and condoms were launched from Gaza with small explosives attached to them. None of the devices caused injury or death.

One person interviewed by the Post in Gaza said he was not affiliated with Hamas and was part of "a loose cell of young men launching balloons," and he knew of 10 groups involved in such activities. However, political observers told the Post that such groups took orders from Hamas.

We found photographs on Getty Images of Palestinian men attaching these devices to balloons and sending them into the air. The caption of one of the images states: "Palestinians prepare incendiary devices attached to inflated condoms to be directed and flown towards Israel, near Rafah along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel on August 21, 2020."

(SAID KHATIB / AFP/ Getty Images)

Another photograph shows men attaching the devices, with the caption: "20 January 2020, Palestinian Territories, Bureij: Masked Palestinians attach incendiary devices and flammable material to refrigerant gas-filled condoms before being released to be propelled by wind into Israeli territory, near the Israel-Gaza border."

(Mohammed Talatene/Getty Images)
We are unable to determine the exact source of the condoms being used as flotation tools to send explosive devices into Israel in 2020.

According to Israeli news outlet The Jerusalem Post in a February 2020 story, the use of condoms for aerial bombs had been ongoing for two years, and Israeli authorities banned their imports to Gaza as a result of the threats:

Condoms in Gaza are generally supplied by either local Palestinian organizations or through international programs. The helium used to fill them up, which is intended for medical purposes, including operating MRI machines, is imported into the Gaza Strip with Israel's approval.

When first faced with the explosive condom threat, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories limited the import of condoms, balloons and helium into the Hamas-run coastal enclave. The ban remains in place.

Were any of those condoms funded by the U.S. in 2020? We found this to be highly unlikely. As we previously reported, there were no USAID shipments of contraceptives to the Middle East from 2019 until 2023. The first such shipment occurred in the 2023 fiscal year, in which $45,680 was spent on oral and injectable contraceptives designated for Jordan. The Jordanian government was responsible for its distribution. This shipment did not include any condoms.

Thus, it is impossible that Gaza received any USAID-funded condoms in the 2020 fiscal year as well as in subsequent years.

Sources:

"20 January 2020, Palestinian Territories, Bureij: Masked Palestinians..." Getty Images, 20 Jan. 2020, 

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/january-2020-palestinian-territories-bureij-masked-news-photo/1194926932." target="blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/january-2020-palestinian-territories-bureij-masked-news-photo/1194926932.">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/january-2020-palestinian-territories-bureij-masked-news-photo/1194926932

Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

"Gaza Terror: How Condoms Became a Weapon against Israel." The Jerusalem Post | JPost.Com, 5 Feb. 2020, 

https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/incendiary-balloons-launched-from-gaza-are-often-condoms-616619." target="blank">https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/incendiary-balloons-launched-from-gaza-are-often-condoms-616619.">https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/incendiary-balloons-launched-from-gaza-are-often-condoms-616619

Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

Hendrix, Steve, et al. "Gaza Militants Target Israel with Party Balloons Bearing Bombs." The Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2020,

 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426?adppopup=true." target="blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426?adppopup=true.">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426?adppopup=true

Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

Ibrahim, Nur. "No Evidence US Govt Allocated $50M To Send Condoms to Gaza." Snopes, 30 Jan. 2025, 

https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/29/evidence-us-govt-50m-condoms-gaza/." target="blank">https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/29/evidence-us-govt-50m-condoms-gaza/.">https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/01/29/evidence-us-govt-50m-condoms-gaza/

Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

"LIVE | President Trump Signing Laken Riley Act as First Legislation." Fox 9, 30 Jan. 2025,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUTdwiLRxc." target="blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUTdwiLRxc.">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUTdwiLRxc

Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

"Palestinians Prepare Incendiary Devices Attached to Inflated Condoms..." Getty Images, 21 Aug. 2020,

 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426." target="blank">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426.">https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-prepare-incendiary-devices-attached-to-news-photo/1228142426

Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.

Snowden speaks out on Gabbard confirmation battle

Dominick Mastrangelo
Fri, January 31, 2025 

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden defended former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), President Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence, following a fiery confirmation hearing in the Senate on Thursday.

“Her sin is that she told the truth about the government spying on Americans, and for that she is getting absolutely persecuted,” Snowden wrote in a post on the social platform X, paraphrasing comments made by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) during a Fox News appearance on Thursday, which he shared video of with his followers.

During her confirmation hearing, lawmakers grilled Gabbard over her views on Snowden and his theft of more than a million classified documents.

Gabbard responded by saying she is “focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,” in reference to Snowden’s leaking of classified documents.

Several GOP senators told The Hill after the hearing Gabbard’s confirmation could be on shaky ground, with one saying “people are holding their cards pretty close to the vest” on her nomination.

Snowden, who has been a vocal critic of the national intelligence community since fleeing the country, wrote in another social media post earlier this week that Gabbard will be “required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today.”

“I encourage her to do so,” he said. “Tell them I harmed national security and the sweet, soft feelings of staff. In D.C., that’s what passes for the pledge of allegiance.”

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Up next

Here's the latest as Canada prepares for Trump tariffs

The Canadian Press

Sun, February 2, 2025 at 8:56 a.m. MST·2 min read

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last night Canada will retaliate after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed 25 per cent tariffs against Canadian goods would go into effect Tuesday.

Trudeau said Saturday that Canada will respond with 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods, including alcohol, furniture and natural resources.

Here's the latest (all times Eastern):

———

8:56 a.m.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture says it's "extremely disappointed" in the tariffs coming Tuesday.

“These tariffs are going to have negative consequences for farmers and consumers on both sides of the border. There’s no question," says Keith Currie, CFA president, in a statement.

———

8:30 a.m.

Ontario premier Doug Ford says American products will be removed from LCBO shelves on Tuesday.

He says this means the LCBO, which is the province's alcohol wholesaler, will also remove American products from its catalogue so that Ontario-based restaurants and sellers can't order or restock them.

"There’s never been a better time to choose an amazing Ontario-made or Canadian-made product," Ford says in a statement.

———

8:26 a.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his trade claims about the U.S. subsidizing Canada in a post on his social media site Truth Social.

"We don't need anything they have," says Trump, calling out energy, cars and lumber in particular.

Trump also repeated his comments about Canada becoming the "51st state."

———

8:03 a.m.

Federal Liberal party candidate Chrystia Freeland is urging people to buy Canadian in a campaign email.

"The next time you go grocery shopping, or pick something up for the kids, check where what you are buying is made. If you can, Buy Canadian. And, try your best not to buy products made in the United States," says Freeland.

———

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2025.

Trump’s ‘Tariff Thrashing’ Spurs Crisis Response From Canada

Christine Dobby and Randy Thanthong-Knight
Sun, February 2, 2025 





(Bloomberg) -- Canadian government officials and business leaders mounted a crisis response that drew parallels with the Covid pandemic after President Donald Trump signed an order to put 25% tariffs on almost everything the US buys from Canada.

Officials arranged a meeting with the chief executive officers of Canada’s major banks and the governor of the Bank of Canada, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Sunday. The head of Canada’s bank regulator was also invited to join the call, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.

The meeting was expected to discuss possible government aid and regulatory responses, such as changes in bank capital rules, to support Canadian businesses, the person said. Similar meetings were common as the Covid crisis unfolded in early 2020. At that time, bank capital rules were relaxed to allow more lending to help the economy.

Government leaders in Canada also announced more retaliatory measures against the US. Several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, will remove US products from liquor stores they control. In Ottawa, government staff gave more details on how Canada will bring in 25% counter-tariffs against more than 1,200 categories of US products within days.

One government official, speaking on condition they not be named, said they believed Trump’s move is a clear violation of the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal that he signed in 2020, and that Canada is considering its legal options.

The US tariffs — which also include 10% levies on Canadian oil and gas — are expected to create job losses in Canada and may even cause it to tip into a recession if they last for a number of months, according to economists. Ontario and Quebec, the two most populous provinces and the home of the country’s automotive and aerospace industries, look particularly vulnerable.

“Canada feels betrayed. Violated. Punched by its big brother for no damn good reason,” Bank of Nova Scotia economist Derek Holt wrote in a report titled “The Saturday Night Tariff Thrashing.” Relations between the two longtime allies have “sharply deteriorated in breathtaking fashion that I certainly haven’t seen in my life or 30-year career,” he said.

Trump’s executive orders putting tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China are intended to address what he calls a “threat to the safety and security of Americans, including the public health crisis of deaths due to the use of fentanyl.”

Canadian officials have countered by pointing to US data that suggests Canada is only a very minor source of the fentanyl that’s making it into the US, and saying they’re taking strong measures to crack down on the drug.

Motorcyles and Makeup

The initial phase of Canadian counter-tariffs comes into effect Tuesday and will place 25% levies on C$30 billion ($20.4 billion) in American-made goods — including alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, coffee, diamond rings, motorcycles and makeup. The products were selected to create difficulties for US exporters while minimizing disruption for Canadian shoppers, as there are non-US sources for those things.

In three weeks, Canada plans to place tariffs on an additional C$125 billion of US-made items, including cars and trucks, unless there’s a resolution.

LeBlanc said he thought it was unlikely the trade war would be solved immediately.

“I’m very pessimistic that by Tuesday we can get out,” he said on CTV News, noting that he spoke with Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, a day earlier. “My conversations with Howard Lutnick and others in the administration tell me that perhaps in March there’s a window again. But most of this is so unpredictable. Our job is to be ready for what Mr. Trump did yesterday. We were ready.”

Many Canadians reacted to the rupture in relations with the country’s closest ally with anger and dismay, from hockey fans in Ottawa booing the Star-Spangled Banner, to lists circulating on social media of how to “Buy Canada” at the grocery store.

Canada’s former finance minister called Trump’s tariff action “utter madness” in a CNN interview. “It is a betrayal of America’s closest friend, of your ally, your neighbor, your best partner in the whole world,” said Chrystia Freeland, who is now running to replace Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister. Trudeau will leave office next month.

Freeland and four other candidates in the Liberal leadership race, including former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, issued a joint statement calling the US tariff decision “an assault on our countries’ long-standing economic partnership.”

Business organizations from across the country and lobby groups for industries including aluminum, beef, forest products and canola condemned the tariffs. The US aluminum industry also called on Trump to exempt Canadian imports of the raw metal to help protect American jobs and domestic manufacturers.

Phillip Magness, senior research fellow at the Independent Institute, a California-based policy research group, highlighted the historic nature of Trump’s sweeping tariff actions. The closest parallel, he said, is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, when Congress attempted to protect the American economy in the early days of the Great Depression and raised tariff rates to 59% on average.

“Rather than serving as this counter-recessionary stimulus package that it was pitched as, it ended up igniting an international trade war very similar to what we’re actually seeing unfold today,” Magness said in an interview.

“It collapsed the international exports market out of the US as well as imports coming in, and plunged us into a complete collapse of the global trading system within about four years.”

--With assistance from Laura Dhillon Kane, Brian Platt and Melissa Shin.

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Oil Surges as Trump Slaps Tariffs on America’s Largest Supplier

Yongchang Chin
Updated Sun, February 2, 2025


(Bloomberg) — Oil surged as President Donald Trump placed hefty tariffs on a range of imports including crude from Canada and Mexico, threatening higher costs for consumers.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F), the US benchmark, rose as much as 3.7% to $75.18 a barrel, while Brent crude’s (BZ=F) gains were less pronounced, to near $76. Trump carried out his threat to impose general levies of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on Chinese goods starting on Tuesday, sparking pledges of retaliation and leaving only a small window for last-minute negotiation.

Energy from Canada faces a reduced levy of 10%, which includes roughly 4 million barrels a day of crude. The US gets most of its oil imports from its northern neighbor — as well as about 500,000 barrels from Mexico. The increased cost for feedstock will likely translate to surging prices at the pump, with the most-active gasoline futures soaring as much as 5% in New York.

Crude had fallen since Trump’s inauguration, with the new administration’s policies threatening to disrupt global trade and growth, but still notched a modest advance last month after gains from a cold winter and US sanctions on Russian oil. Trump also flagged even wider tariffs in the coming months, including against the European Union

“Tariffs on the US’ largest crude oil supplier are providing a boost to crude oil prices and in particular refined product prices,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy for ING Groep NV. “While this may be supportive in the very short term, we may not need to wait too long for a risk-off move as it raises concerns over global growth.”

The potential disruption to US oil supply saw the discount of WTI to global benchmark Brent narrow to around $3 a barrel from a low of nearly $4 last month. Traded volumes were also far above average levels in the Asian session, with about 200,000 lots of WTI across the curve trading in the first hour, or almost a fifth of Friday’s total.

Tariff War Likely to Plunge Canada Into Recession

Randy Thanthong-Knight and Erik Hertzberg
Sun, February 2, 2025 at 1:12 p.m. PST 4 min read

(Bloomberg) -- The Canadian economy is set to face the most severe shock since the Covid-19 pandemic and will probably sink into a recession if a tariff war persists, say top economists, with one calling it an “existential threat.”

President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on most goods the US buys from Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to retaliate on C$155 billion ($105 billion) worth of American-made products will trim real gross domestic product growth by 2 to 4 percentage points, according to economists’ estimates.

For an economy that was projected to grow at 1.8% in 2025, that would imply the first annual contraction in 16 years, outside of the pandemic. Consumer prices are likely to increase at a faster pace than the Bank of Canada’s 2% target, the unemployment rate is expected to rise and the Canadian dollar will weaken further.

Here’s what economists are saying:

Toronto-Dominion Bank

Chief Economist Beata Caranci and Senior Economist James Orlando expect a “sharp negative reaction” in North American equity markets and the loonie, which could drop as low as 65 US cents. The economy will probably go into recession if tariffs are sustained for five to six months. Any longer would deepen the contraction, and the unemployment rate may cross the 7% threshold. “It is premature to estimate the central bank response,” they said.


Bank of Montreal

Chief Economist Douglas Porter said US tariffs and Canada’s counter-levies may reduce Canadian GDP growth by about two percentage points, and “if the announced tariffs remain in place for one year, the economy would face the risk of a modest recession.” Based on the tariff news, he sees the Bank of Canada cutting its policy rate by a quarter point at each meeting until October, then holding at 1.5%.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Chief Economist Avery Shenfeld said a permanent, two-way trade war would be a “recessionary shock for Canada.” While a weaker loonie and a mix of monetary and fiscal stimulus could aid a recovery, the losses from trade would mean weaker real output even after a return to full employment. “Our upcoming forecasts are likely to be based on a less damaging scenario that has the tariffs removed at the negotiating table, as there is precedent for that from Trump’s first term.”


Royal Bank of Canada

Chief Economist Frances Donald and Assistant Chief Economist Nathan Janzen said their estimates align with the Bank of Canada’s findings, which found that a 25% increase in tariffs across the board in the US and globally would reduce Canadian GDP by between 3.4 and 4.2 percentage points. “Tariffs are hitting the Canadian economy at a moment during which it is already struggling. Canada is still recovering from a major interest rate shock, and even as the Bank of Canada has cut interest rates by 200 bps, the unemployment rate continues to rise” and “the country is still operating with excess supply and below full capacity,” they said.


Capital Economics

Chief North America Economist Paul Ashworth said the 25% tariffs represent an “existential threat” for Canada, given that goods exports to the US account for nearly one-fifth of its GDP. Even with a further depreciation in the loonie, the levies will hit exports, investment and consumption, resulting in a 2.5% to 3% decline in GDP, he predicts. He believes the Bank of Canada has scope to cut interest rates by at least another 50 basis points, with both fiscal and monetary stimulus limiting the severity of a recession.

Corpay

The loonie and peso are vulnerable to drops exceeding 2% to 3% after trading begins in Asia Sunday evening Toronto time, said Chief Market Strategist Karl Schamotta. “The consequences of an extended trade war within what was — until a few hours ago — one of the world’s most successful economic partnerships are almost too terrible to comprehend, but markets will nonetheless have to begin planning for one,” he wrote after the tariffs were announced.

RSM Canada


Economist Tu Nguyen said the US-Canada tariff war may lead the Canadian economy to contract by 2% this year, with headline inflation rising to 2.7%. She expects job losses across industries including manufacturing, tourism and transportation as higher prices decrease demand. Prices of fruits and vegetables are likely to jump in coming weeks, while prices of appliances and cars would take longer to increase. Canadians will also see fewer American-made products on store shelves.

Independent Institute

“The cost of the taxes put across the border will be borne by consumers in both countries,” said Phillip Magness, an economic historian and senior research fellow at the Oakland, California-based think tank. Canada will raise money with its counter-tariffs, but “that’s usually just passed on to the consumers of the goods, or the tariffs divert consumption patterns away from an import and over to a domestically produced substitute of the same goods at a higher price. One way or another, consumers end up paying a higher price because of the tariffs.”

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