Stop Talking About My Bruises!

Bruising that ego.

For the past four years, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly dogged former president Joe Biden and former Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton over health concerns. Now the tables have turned and he ain't liking it at all.

The president can't uses toner or makeup to hide his bruises or liver spots. He can't hide the receding hair or the pushed comb overs.

At the age of 79, the stress of a second term is starting to get to him.

The bruises on his hand according to the White House is the endless handshakes.

Right?

He has already experienced the second term curse pretty damn early and it led to his fallout with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elise Stefanik. He took a massive defeats in three major elections that he endorsed the candidates. 

If you want peace, you got to give Russia what it wants. Do me a favor! Turn over Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and not join the NATO alliance.

He has overseen another government shutdown and chaotic foreign policy.

It is taking a toll on his job approval. 

He has a 34% job approval.

The Daily Beast has closely catalogued the bruising on Trump’s hand, which he has been nursing for months. The makeup smears, together with Trump’s swollen ankles, mysterious MRI, mental flubs, and twice-in-a-year “annual” medical checkups, have raised concerns about the health of the oldest person to be inaugurated president.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to Mar-a-Lago to discuss a solution to the Russian invasion. The president is trying to force Zelenskyy to concede land and avoid joining NATO. 

Zelenskyy told Trump directly that he is not going to allow Russia to seize land from Ukrainian sovereignty.

Also Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Mar-a-Lago to detail his intentions to strike Iran again. This fake ceasefire is entering its deadlier second phase.

Israel has killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians since this U.S.-backed ceasefire came into effect.

It is a damn farce because Israel has violated it over and over again.

I answer to him.

Trump warned Iran on Monday that the U.S. could carry out further military strikes if the country attempts to reconstitute its nuclear program as he held wide-ranging talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his home in Florida.

Trump had previously insisted that Tehran’s nuclear capabilities were “completely and fully obliterated” by U.S. strikes on key nuclear enrichment sites in June. But with Netanyahu by his side, Trump raised the possibility that suspected activity could be taking place outside those sites. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have been quoted in local media expressing concern about Iran rebuilding its supply of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.

“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”

Trump’s warning to Iran comes as his administration has committed significant resources to targeting drug trafficking in South America and the president looks to create fresh momentum for the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The Gaza deal is in danger of stalling before reaching its complicated second phase that would involve naming an international governing body and rebuilding the devastated Palestinian territory.

At a news conference with Netanyahu after their meeting, Trump suggested that he could order another U.S. strike.

“If it’s confirmed, they know the consequences, and the consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time,” Trump said.

Iran has insisted that it is no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program. The two leaders discussed the possibility of taking new military action against Tehran just months after June’s 12-day war.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s warning.

Gaza ceasefire progress has slowed

Trump, with Netanyahu by his side, said he wants to get to the second phase of the Gaza deal “as quickly as we can.”

“But there has to be a disarming of Hamas,” Trump added.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that Trump championed has mostly held, but progress has slowed recently. Both sides accuse each other of violations, and divisions have emerged among the U.S., Israel and Arab countries about the path forward.

The truce’s first phase began in October, days after the two-year anniversary of the initial Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed about a disputed toll 1,200 people. Israel constantly hypes up the death toll. Israelis used the Hannibal Directive to kill its own civilians but places the fault on Hamas. Hamas stated clearly that their goal was to attack military not civilians. All but one of the 251 IDF soliders/illegal settlers taken then have been released, alive or dead.

The Israeli leader, who also met separately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has signaled he is in no rush to move forward with the next phase as long as the remains of Ran Gvili are still in Gaza.

Gvili’s parents met with Netanyahu as well as Rubio, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Florida on Monday.

Iran president Masoud Pezeshkian and China president Xi Jinping.

“They’re waiting for their son to come home,” Trump said of the family of the young police officer known affectionately as “Rani.”

Next phase is complex

The path to implementing Trump’s peace plan is certainly complicated.

If successful, the second phase would see the rebuilding of a demilitarized Gaza under international supervision by a group chaired by Trump and known as the Board of Peace. The Palestinians would form a “technocratic, apolitical” committee to run daily affairs in Gaza, under Board of Peace supervision.

It further calls for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world and a possible pathway to Palestinian independence. Then there are thorny logistical and humanitarian questions, including rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza, disarming Hamas and creating a security apparatus called the International Stabilization Force.

Much remains unsettled

Two main challenges have complicated moving to the second phase, according to an official who was briefed on those meetings. Israeli officials have been taking a lot of time to vet and approve members of the Palestinian technocratic committee from a list given to them by the mediators, and Israel continues its military strikes.

Trump’s plan also calls for the stabilization force, proposed as a multinational body, to maintain security. But it, too, has yet to be formed. Whether details will be forthcoming after Monday’s meeting is unclear.

A Western diplomat said there is a “huge gulf” between the U.S.-Israeli understanding of the force’s mandate and that of other major countries in the region, as well as European governments.

All spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that haven’t been made public.

The U.S. and Israel want the force to have a “commanding role” in security duties, including disarming Hamas and other militant groups. But countries being courted to contribute troops fear that mandate will make it an “occupation force,” the diplomat said.

Hamas has said it is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons but insists it has a right to armed resistance as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory. One U.S. official said a potential plan might be to offer cash incentives in exchange for weapons, echoing a “buyback” program Witkoff has previously floated.

Trump makes case once again for Netanyahu pardon

The two leaders, who have a long and close relationship, heaped praise on each other. Trump also tweaked the Israeli leader, who at moments during the war has raised Trump’s ire, for being “very difficult on occasion.”

Netanyahu said Trump during the lunch was formally told that his country’s education ministry will award him the Israel Prize, breaking the long-held convention of bestowing the honor on an Israeli citizen or resident.

“President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people,” Netanyahu said. He added, “So we decided to break a convention too, or create a new one.”

Trump also renewed his call on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a corruption trial, a pardon.

Netanyahu is the only sitting prime minister in Israeli history to stand trial, after being charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy political supporters.

Trump has previously written to Herzog to urge a pardon and advocated for one during his October speech before the Knesset. He said Monday that Herzog has told him “it’s on its way” without offering further details.

“He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon?” Trump said.

Herzog’s office said in a statement that the Israeli president and Trump have not spoken since the pardon request was submitted, but that Herzog has spoken with a Trump representative about the U.S. president’s letter advocating for Netanyahu’s pardon.

“During that conversation, an explanation was provided regarding the stage of the process in which the request currently stands, and that any decision on the matter will be made in accordance with the established procedures,” the Israeli president’s office said.