After former president Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 race in favor of his vice president, Kamala Harris, he “demanded” loyalty from Harris so that he could protect his legacy, a new book reveals.

Biden “had no interest” in giving Harris room to “forge her own path” ahead of the election, journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes write in their forthcoming book, Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, according to excerpts published by The Hill.

During Harris’s campaign, Biden “would say publicly that Harris should do what she must to win,” a book excerpt reads. “But privately, including in conversations with her, he repeated an admonition: let there be no daylight between us.” He had used the same phrase in 2008 to tie John McCain to George W. Bush, Allen and Parnes note.

Former Biden aides, who filled major roles in Harris’s campaign, reinforced that message at every turn, according to the book.

Hours before Harris faced Republican nominee Donald Trump during the September 10 debate, Biden called her with another reminder of “the loyalty he demanded.”

“No daylight, kid,” Biden told Harris, making clear that he “expected Harris to protect his legacy”—no matter “whether she won or lost the election.”

Harris, however, did have control over one aspect of her campaign—the size of her chair. Her team thought she had appeared small next to her running mate, Tim Walz, in an interview and became fixated on ensuring that she would project a more imposing presence on camera.

“For the rest of the campaign, her team required that she be provided a chair that met certain specifications,” the book states: “‘Leg height no less than 15 inches; floor to top of seat height no less than 18.9 inches; arms on chairs may not be very high, arms must fall at a natural height; chairs must be firm.'”

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The Trump administration slapped fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil minister and a host of maritime service providers that have helped Tehran ferry its illicit crude across the globe, the latest in a bevy of measures meant to cripple the hardline regime’s financial networks.

For the first time, Iranian minister of petroleum Mohsen Paknejad was included in a sanctions package, signaling the Trump administration’s desire to target a central figure in the country’s oil smuggling operation. Paknejad “oversees the export of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil and has allocated billions of dollars’ worth of oil to Iran’s armed forces for export,” according to the Treasury Department.

Additional sanctions were placed on entities from several countries, including India and China, for their role in shipping Iranian crude across the globe. This includes “a vast shadow fleet of vessels” that disguise the Iranian oil and export it primarily to Beijing at significantly reduced prices.

The sanctions are the most significant and wide-ranging to date. They were issued by both the State and Treasury departments as part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which is meant to bankrupt the hardline regime. Oil remains one of the Islamic Republic’s chief sources of revenue, helping it fund regional terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. In announcing the new sanctions, U.S. officials said they intend to “reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero.”

“The Iranian regime continues to use the proceeds from the nation’s vast oil resources to advance its narrow, alarming self-interests at the expense of the Iranian people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Treasury will fight and disrupt any attempts by the regime to fund its destabilizing activities and further its dangerous agenda.”

The fresh sanctions come just a day after the White House warned Iran that military options remain on the table if it does not consent to negotiations around its contested nuclear weapons program. The White House National Security Council reaffirmed this threat on Wednesday, telling the Washington Free Beacon that there are only “two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or by making a deal.”

Sanctions are a key tool in this pressure campaign. The Iranian regime raked in billions of dollars from its oil smuggling ring during the Biden-Harris administration, which failed to enforce sanctions that were already on the books.

Now flush with cash, the Iranian regime rejected recent diplomatic overtures from the Trump administration, going so far as to dare the United States to attack. But with sanctions in full force, the regime could quickly change its calculus and sit down at the bargaining table.

The inclusion of Paknejad, Iran’s oil minister, in Thursday’s sanctions is certain to get the Iranian regime’s attention. He is responsible for allocations of “billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil to the Iranian armed forces,” including the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Around 200,000 barrels of Iranian crude are allocated to the armed forces each day to supplement their budget, according to information provided by the Treasury Department.

Iran intends to increase this allocation over the next year, according to the Trump administration’s assessment, which points “to a four-fold dollar increase in oil allocations, exceeding 10 billion dollars annually and totaling over 500,000 barrels per day.”

“By the end of 2025,” the Treasury Department said, “over half of Iran’s total oil revenues will be allocated to its armed forces.”

Outside of Iran, the United States is targeting a network of oil tankers and maritime companies that ferry Iranian crude across the globe. While many of these ships were already known to facilitate Iran’s oil smuggling operation, the Biden-Harris administration refrained from taking action for four years.

One Hong Kong-flagged vessel, the PEACE HILL, was identified by the United States as transporting “millions of barrels of Iranian oil” from the Changxhing port in Dalian, China, “on behalf of the Iranian military.” Another, the San Marino-flagged SEASKY ferried “tens of thousands of metric tons of fuel” to China on behalf of Iran’s national oil company.

Both ships were hit with sanctions, as well as their two China-based operators: Heshun Transportation Trading Limited and Seasky Marine Co., Limited. A third Hong-Kong-based firm, Sun Science International Co. was also sanctioned for operating a ship called the CORONA FUN, a Panama-flagged vessel that has illicitly offloaded Iranian crude.

An additional assortment of tankers and firms—including those in Bangladesh, Africa, Liberia, Marshall Islands, and Sri Lanka—were sanctioned for running similar operations on Iran’s behalf.

Parallel sanctions were announced in tandem by the State Department, which targeted three firms and three ships complicit in Iran’s oil ring. The entities named by the State Department provide ship-to-ship oil transfer for Tehran, which helps it “disguise the Iranian origin of the cargo,” according to the announcement.

This includes the Indonesia-based PT. BINTANG SAMUDRA UTAMA and Singapore-based SHIPLOAD MARITIME PTE. LTD. Both firms operate vessels that have conducted ship-to-ship oil transfers for Iran, according to the State Department.

“The United States is acting under President Trump’s policy of maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to stop the flow of revenue it uses to fund these destabilizing activities,” the State Department said.

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Indivisible, the left-wing group behind red-district town hall protests targeting Elon Musk’s DOGE, is providing local activists with a “reimbursement program” to cover certain expenses associated with opposing what it calls the “Trump-Musk coup.” Included among the reimbursable items are “chicken suits,” according to Indivisible’s co-executive director.

Local Indivisible chapters, a webpage outlining the program states, can receive up to $200 per congressional recess for protest expenses like audio and video equipment, signage, promotional materials, and gas. For lawmakers who decline to hold town halls during the upcoming recess, Indivisible encourages local activists to hold their own events and purchase “cardboard depictions of your Member of Congress” and “chicken suits,” both of which Indivisible will pay for.

“We reimburse for chicken suits!!!” Indivisible co-executive director Leah Greenberg wrote on Bluesky. When a follower later asked Greenberg if Indivisible would ship the suits to members, she responded, “Historically we’ve mostly just sent people money to buy their own, but…stay tuned for March recess.”

After submitting receipts, local Indivisible members receive the funds through direct deposit or mailed check, the page says. They may be able to receive more funds if they find that $200 is not enough—the “reimbursement program” webpage tells activists to contact Indivisible if “the reimbursement is not sufficient to cover costs.” That issue shouldn’t apply to chicken costumes, which a Chinese retailer sells for as little as $30 on Amazon. Buyers beware: The company, Hainan Chong Yu Industrial Co., has faced U.S. recalls for failing to meet flammability standards.

Indivisible’s reimbursement program is open through December, suggesting the group has long-term plans to continue the viral red-district protests that drove mainstream media headlines during the House recess last month. The New York Times cited those protests as proof of a “broader backlash” over Musk’s efforts to slash government spending but did not mention Indivisible’s role in organizing them.

In the wake of the demonstrations, Indivisible emailed Democratic congressional offices to inform them of similar protests the group plans to spearhead when Congress breaks for its upcoming March recess.

The message said Indivisible “put Republicans on notice by organizing nearly 200 events across the country and directly challenging them for supporting unelected billionaires like Elon Musk” and pledged to “go even bigger” this month. It also encouraged Democrats to disclose their events to Indivisible to avoid “calls and confusion over town hall scheduling.”

Though Indivisible says it’s “fueled by small dollar donations at the national level,” it has received nearly $8 million from liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations since 2017. On Saturday, Musk cited Indivisible and its Soros funding in a tweet that blamed the group for protests targeting Tesla dealerships, which Indivisible has also organized. Hours later, a Forbes fact check said Musk had “dubiously blame[d] Soros.” It did not mention the Open Society Foundations’s past support for Indivisible.

In addition to the reimbursement program, Indivisible operates a “distributed fundraising program” through which it helps local chapters register with ActBlue to raise their own funds. Indivisible says it pays ActBlue’s service fees on their local groups’ behalf “so that 100% of the funds your group raises are deposited onto your debit card to spend on permitted group activities.”

Indivisible did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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A United Nations judge was convicted on Thursday of trafficking a young woman to the United Kingdom and forcing her to work as a slave.

Ugandan judge Lydia Mugambe, 49, “exploited and abused” the victim, prosecutors said, forcing her to work as an unpaid maid and caregiver while barring her from seeking other employment. A jury found Mugambe guilty of multiple offenses, including facilitating illegal immigration, forced labor, and witness intimidation, the Independent reported.

Mugambe became a judge on the U.N. International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in May 2023, even though police had been called to her home in Oxfordshire three months earlier, according to the Independent. Mugambe was studying for a law Ph.D. at Oxford at the time.

A jury agreed with the prosecution’s case that Mugambe, who also serves as a judge on Uganda’s High Court, conspired with Ugandan diplomat John Leonard Mugerwa in a “very dishonest” quid pro quo. Mugerwa, the prosecutors said, arranged for the Ugandan embassy to sponsor the victim’s entry into the United Kingdom under false pretenses, while Mugambe attempted to influence a judge overseeing a case in which Mugerwa was involved.

Mugambe denied the charges, insisting she always treated the young woman with “love, care, and patience,” the BBC reported.

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Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce Thursday that he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat as he positions himself for another presidential bid in 2028.

Buttigieg, who ran a failed presidential campaign in 2020, is looking to strengthen his White House prospects by avoiding back-to-back campaigns in 2026 and 2028, his allies told Politico‘s Adam Wren.

The decision comes after Buttigieg, who moved to Michigan in 2022, acknowledged that he had been “looking” at a Senate campaign and even met in late February with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). Buttigieg recently also opted out of a run for Michigan governor.

“Pete was an A-list recruit and would have been a formidable candidate for the Senate had he chosen to run,” said Democratic operative David Axelrod, who talked with Buttigieg on Wednesday. “But had he won in ’26, it would almost certainly have taken him out of the conversation for ’28. This certainly keeps that option open.”

Polling, however, suggests that Buttigieg would likely have struggled in the Senate race. A recent Epic MRA poll found Buttigieg trailing potential Republican candidate Mike Rogers by 6 percentage points—41 percent to 47 percent. A Plymouth Union Public Research poll, meanwhile, found that most Michiganders don’t even know that Buttigieg had moved to the state.

Even before Buttigieg’s exit, Republicans considered Michigan a prime pickup opportunity, having almost flipped the battleground state’s other Senate seat in the last election. President Donald Trump carried Michigan in 2024.

Other Democrats expressing interest in 2028 include California governor Gavin Newsom and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel.

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A match made in hell: The Columbia University student activist detained over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials has lawyered up. When Mahmoud Khalil appeared in federal court on Wednesday (spoiler alert: the Obama-nominated judge, Jesse Furman, temporarily halted his deportation), he was represented by, among others, a fellow Columbia graduate by the name of Ramzi Kassem. The Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman reports:

Kassem has represented terrorists including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, as well as several other Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a “close associate” of Osama bin Laden. He went on to serve as an immigration policy adviser to former president Joe Biden as a member of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council.

Like his new client, Kassem was also involved in anti-Israel activism as a student at Columbia, where he lobbied to rename a sandwich called the “Israeli wrap” in the student dining hall, claiming the terminology was offensive to Muslims. He attended Columbia Law School on a fellowship funded by Paul Soros, the elder brother of Democratic megadonor George Soros.

READ MORE: Lawyer For Radical Columbia Grad Student Repped Al-Qaeda Members – Including ‘Close Associate’ of Bin Laden

A match made in hell, part two: Columbia University and Barnard College students are rallying support for their friend Khalil—including “Squad” member Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi. The Free Beacon’s Jessica Costescu reports:

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), championed a fundraiser supporting Mahmoud Khalil, the student activist and foreign national facing deportation by the Trump administration over his pro-Hamas campus organizing.

The online fundraiser was launched after Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Khalil into custody Saturday night after the State Department revoked his visa and green card. By Wednesday afternoon, the fundraiser had raised nearly $270,000, surpassing its $250,000 goal and prompting administrators to set a new target of $500,000.

Hirsi, a far-left activist, anti-Israel agitator, and Barnard College senior, posted a screenshot of the fundraiser with a link to the webpage on her Instagram story Tuesday afternoon, which at the time had raised about $115,000.

The money “will help Mahmoud and his family’s urgent and evolving needs as we work to secure his release and support his family during this incredibly difficult time,” according to the fundraising page. The funds will go toward Khalil’s legal defense, secure bail if he becomes eligible for release, assist his family, and cover medical expenses. They will also bankroll “long-term justice efforts” to “hold those responsible for his unlawful detention accountable.”

READ MORE: Ilhan Omar’s Daughter Promotes Fundraiser For Pro-Hamas Activist in ICE Custody

Trump wants to negotiate with Iran. The feeling isn’t mutual. “The White House on Wednesday reaffirmed its threat to take military action against Iran if the country does not consent to negotiations on its contested nuclear weapons program, ratcheting up pressure just a day after Tehran’s hardline leadership categorically rejected diplomatic overtures from the Trump administration,” the Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo reports.

“To reiterate, President Trump said it clearly that there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or by making a deal,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the Washington Free Beacon. “We hope the Iran Regime puts its people and best interests ahead of terror.”

Tehran, however, says it has no interest in negotiating with America. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei was defiant on Wednesday when he promised to retaliate if the United States resorted to military force.

“Iran does not seek war, but if the Americans and their cohorts do a damn thing whatsoever, Iran’s retaliation is decisive and definite, and the one who will be the loser would be America,” Khamenei said during a meeting with Iranian university students on Wednesday. “Iran is capable of dealing a blow to the aggressor and will definitely hit it back.”

Then again, Israel did allegedly wipe out Iran’s air defenses in a single day, so the mullahs may be a little vulnerable…

READ MORE: Iran Rejects Trump’s Diplomacy, Setting Up Showdown as War Talk Escalates

Finally, Jake Tapper was widely denounced when he promoted his forthcoming book about how Joe Biden and his Democratic allies plotted to cover up “evidence of his serious decline,” given that Tapper himself contributed to the cover-up. The book won’t be released until May, but our Andrew Stiles has exclusive portions on the sinister plot to protect Biden that we’ll be publishing until then. Here’s a preview of the first, titled “The Kabul Catastrophe.”

President Joe Biden sat hunched at the head of the table. He puzzled over his daily brief, now delivered in the form of a sound book for toddlers. “A is for Afghan—A is for—A is for—A is for—A—A—A—A is for Afghanistan.” It drove his aides crazy, but they also knew the sacrifice was worth it. For the moment, at least, this diminished man they had taken to calling “the commander in corpse” would be too occupied to follow up on his latest obsession: filming a “hot sex tape” with Dr. Jill. Among the senior advisers, only Hunter had taken it seriously, but the first son had other things on his mind today.

“Dunkirk,” Hunter said, slapping the table with authority. “We can do what they did in Dunkirk.” He had recently seen the Christopher Nolan film, he explained.

“Brilliant,” the president replied. “D is for Dunkirk. Where’s the secretary of defense?”

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: The Most Explosive Revelations From Jake Tapper’s New Book About Biden’s Decline (Part 1)

Our full Thursday lineup is below.

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The Illinois Board of Higher Education runs a scholarship program for graduate students that explicitly excludes white applicants, a move lawyers say is unconstitutional and could jeopardize the federal funding of more than two dozen participating universities, including Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.

The program, Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI), was established by state law in 2004 and provides financial aid to “members of traditionally underrepresented minority groups” pursuing masters or doctoral degrees. Those groups include “African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Asian American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander,” according to the program’s landing page.

Students apply to the program through their universities, each of which has an “institutional representative” who helps “verify … that applicants for the fellowship meet all eligibility criteria.” That structure means that participating institutions, which include the top public and private universities in the state, are directly involved in an application process that violates federal law, according to five attorneys who reviewed the program requirements.

“This isn’t a hard one,” said Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego and a commissioner on the U.S Commission on Civil Rights. “The program was illegal and unconstitutional since its inception.”

Illinois is already fending off a lawsuit over a similar program, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, that provides financial aid to minorities pursuing teacher licenses. A separate lawsuit, this one focused on racial hiring quotas at University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), was filed last month by a former professor at the school.

The DFI program could be yet another liability for the state’s embattled education bureaucracy—one with the potential to bankrupt Illinois’s most prestigious universities in the event of litigation.

David Bernstein, a professor of constitutional law at George Mason University law school, said that any schools participating in the program “run the risk of losing all federal funding, including eligibility for student loans and other financial assistance.” William Trachman, the general counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, said that officials facilitating the program could be held personally liable for “violating clearly established law.”

And Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, said that the program was a perfect target for the Trump administration, which has promised to root out racial preferences at colleges and universities. “Every listed institution has tasked an individual employee with affirmatively discriminating based on race in who and how to help obtain financial aid,” Morenoff told the Free Beacon. “That seems certain to violate Title VI”—the law banning race discrimination by recipients of federal funds—”and promises to draw the attention and ire of any number of federal agencies.”

Northwestern and the University of Chicago, the two most prominent schools participating in the program, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Illinois Board of Higher Education, Jose Garcia, said he did not “have relevant information” about the program and referred the Free Beacon to the office of the state’s Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker, which approves funding for the program. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

While some states and universities have paused their race-based programs in the face of legal threats from the Trump administration, Illinois does not appear to have done so. An application for the DFI scholarship indicates that schools are in the process of nominating candidates—all from minority backgrounds—for a statewide selection committee, which must receive the applications by March 21. The document was still online Wednesday morning, weeks after the deadline set by the Education Department for schools to cease all forms of race-based programming.

“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law,” the department warned in a Dear Colleague letter in February, “face potential loss of federal funding.”

The Trump administration made good on that threat last week when it canceled $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing the school’s “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” It has also canceled smaller grants to other schools over their diversity initiatives, such as a program at Minnesota’s University of St. Thomas that drilled educators on “white privilege” and made them pledge to be “brave equity warriors.”

More cancellations could be coming. On Monday, the Education Department sent letters to 60 universities, including Brown and Yale, warning that they could lose funding if they do not address anti-Semitism on their campuses. One of those universities, Northwestern, is also a participant in the DFI program. In 2024, it received more than $455 million in federal aid.

After the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions, many experts assumed that race-based fellowships and scholarships were next on the chopping block. Those programs have persisted into the early days of the Trump era, however, and have brought with them a host of activist scholars on the taxpayer’s dime.

At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, grants from the National Science Foundation were used to hire minority academics in “Critical Dance Studies.” And at UIC—one of the 30 schools participating in DFI—a separate race-based program recruited scholars to teach courses on “antiracism” and “train the next generation of Biomedical Engineers in DEI principles,” according to program applications reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

The applications revealed a scholar-activist pipeline at the heart of Illinois’s flagship public university, which requires all departments to submit “racial equity” plans to the school’s diversity office.

The DFI program appears to have created a similar conduit. Applicants must explain how their “underrepresented status”  shapes their ambitions and aligns with the program’s objective—to “increase the number of minority full-time tenure track faculty and staff at Illinois’ two- and four-year public and private colleges and universities.”

In thousands of pages of applications reviewed by the Free Beacon, students tout their “antiracism efforts,” describe a commitment to “equity,” and decry the “systemic threats” of “racism, sexism, patriarchy, colorism, featurism, [and] texturism” to “inner-city women.” One applicant even likened a professor’s suggestion that she get tested for a learning disability to slavery, adding that his words displayed a “lack of compassion and cultural responsiveness.”

“Nevertheless, as an American Descendant of Slavery (ADOS) with recurring experiences of adversity, I managed to weather storms of marginalization like my ancestors,” she wrote in her application, one of the hundreds obtained by the National Association of Scholars through a public records request and shared with the Free Beacon. “Fast-forward, despite my professor’s unwarranted judgment, I found myself stepping into his world.”

Another applicant stated that she would “like to be a black queer psychology professor who could bring more diversity into academia and new perspectives on everyday life.” Still another referenced the “residue of post traumatic slave syndrome.”

In 2023, the latest year for which data are available, 102 students obtained aid through the program. Though Illinois says that scholarships are awarded through a “rigorous competition,” applicants only need a 2.75 GPA to apply.

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Most heads of state don’t enjoy an annual invitation to the Oval Office, but Ireland’s does. When prime minister Micheál Martin arrived for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day visit, he was warned about the Donald Trump-sized trap he was walking into.

Martin faced a “diplomatic balancing act” in talks with Trump, according to Reuters. Politico was more dire, writing that the meeting, normally a “diplomatic dream,” was this year “dangerous for Ireland’s America-fueled economy.” Martin, the outlet wrote, would be happy to merely “survive a brush with Trump.”

An Irish columnist at the event saw things differently. He told the Washington Free Beacon, which joined the White House press pool on Wednesday, that he expected the meeting to be friendly: Trump has a golf course in Ireland, after all, and “loves it.”

He was largely correct. Trump may have embodied the fighting Irish spirit throughout the meeting, but most of the punches thrown weren’t aimed at Martin.

Instead, he teased forthcoming economic sanctions on Russia and described Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer as “Palestinian.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), or “Pocahontas,” as he put it, was “sick.” And he shrugged off concerns over the Education Department’s plans to lay off half of all employees, arguing that many career staffers at the agency “never showed up to work, unfortunately. And that’s not good.”

Trump, greeting Irish PM, takes shouted question on new inflation report. “Very good news,” he says. @FreeBeacon pic.twitter.com/LAE5XuSiOF

— Collin Anderson (@CAndersonMO) March 12, 2025

Martin looked on in amusement. To be sure, Trump lamented the “massive deficit that we have with Ireland,” blaming his predecessors for allowing pharmaceutical companies to relocate to Ireland. Martin pledged to work with Trump on the issue and rattled off a list of Irish companies that invest in the United States.

Even when Trump turned to tariffs targeting the European Union, of which Ireland is a member, he was quick to emphasize that his problem is with Brussels, not Dublin.

“So I have a property, a big property, in Ireland,” Trump said. “And I was going to do a really beautiful expansion there, because it does really well. And I got the approvals from Ireland so quickly.”

“Then I was told something that bothered me. They said, ‘Sir you also have to get to the European Union.’ I said, ‘Why do I have to go to the European Union to expand a hotel that’s in Ireland?'” Trump continued. “I hired someone who said the process will be five to seven years, and I said, ‘Oh, really.’ … I’ll hand it to Ireland. You were so professional, so good. I don’t know why the European Union had to approve it.”

Tariffs aside, Martin may have expected to face pressure on Israel. Ireland’s relations with the Jewish state are frosty, with Israel closing its embassy in Dublin over the country’s “anti-Israel” stance in 2024. Martin himself has pledged to pass a bill, over U.S. objections, that would ban the importation of Israeli products from the West Bank. Trump, for his part, teased a plan to allow Israel’s annexation of the West Bank during his first term.

The topic arose when an Irish reporter cited the Irish bill and asked Martin if Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised it during his own Oval Office meeting last month.

“She’s definitely not from Israel, interesting question coming from you,” Trump interjected, describing Oct. 7 as a “terrible, terrible day” that Israel must “fight” and condemning everyday Gazans for their “pure hatred” toward Israeli hostages. His answer omitted Ireland.

Trump and Martin headed to the Capitol for a state luncheon full of rosy speeches and Riverdance performers. Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) played emcee as Martin called the United States and Ireland “most steadfast friends.” Trump brought the conversation back to golf, shouting out his incoming ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh, as a talented player who has “the best job in the world” because he can work from Irish courses.

“Hopefully we’re going to be doing this at least three more times,” Trump told Martin. “When I say at least, they go absolutely crazy.”

Later, the pair attended a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House, where Trump shouted out his Irish-American cabinet members, touted falling oil prices, and gave one last nod to his “property in Ireland, actually, that does really well.”

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Isra Hirsi, the daughter of “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), championed a fundraiser supporting Mahmoud Khalil, the student activist and foreign national facing deportation by the Trump administration over his pro-Hamas campus organizing.

The online fundraiser was launched after ICE took Khalil into custody Saturday night after the State Department revoked his visa and green card. By Wednesday afternoon, the fundraiser had raised nearly $270,000, surpassing its $250,000 goal and prompting administrators to set a new target of $500,000.

Hirsi, a far-left activist, anti-Israel agitator, and Barnard College senior, posted a screenshot of the fundraiser with a link to the webpage on her Instagram story Tuesday afternoon, which at the time had raised about $115,000.

The money “will help Mahmoud and his family’s urgent and evolving needs as we work to secure his release and support his family during this incredibly difficult time,” according to the fundraising page. The funds will go toward Khalil’s legal defense, secure bail if he becomes eligible for release, assist his family, and cover medical expenses. They will also bankroll “long-term justice efforts” to “hold those responsible for his unlawful detention accountable.”

The fundraiser ends by noting, “Mahmoud has dedicated his life to fighting for justice. Now, he needs us to fight for him. Let’s stand together and bring him home.”

On Monday, a New York judge temporarily halted Khalil’s deportation proceedings while the federal court hears a petition challenging his arrest. In the petition, Khalil asserted that there was “no basis” for his arrest and subsequent detention. Judge Jesse Furman on Wednesday directed attorneys for both parties to submit a joint letter on Friday outlining further plans for arguments in the case.

Hirsi posted another Instagram story throwing shade at university faculty who remained silent following Khalil’s arrest. She shared a post saying “the academic cowers” and added the caption, “if you are wondering where our esteemed faculty are … shameful behavior.”

Hirsi has a history of taking radical positions, becoming heavily involved in the anti-Israel movement after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. She has participated in protests at Columbia University, Barnard’s sister school, and was arrested and suspended in April after refusing to vacate an illegal encampment on the Ivy League school’s campus.

Alongside Khalil, Hirsi is an organizer with Columbia University Apartheid Divest and with Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, two student groups that have endorsed “armed resistance” and praised terrorists. Both groups also led the recent storming of two Barnard campus buildings, during which radical activists disseminated Hamas pamphlets and clashed with security guards, sending one to the hospital. Video footage placed Khalil at the most recent building storming.

Following her suspension, Hirsi complained in a Teen Vogue interview that she was left homeless and without food. On the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack that killed over 1,000 Israelis, Hirsi posted a picture to her Instagram account with the caption, “Resistance is glorious, we will be victorious.”

In October, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Hirsi, whose parents are Somali immigrants, had received “reparations” payments from her white friends on Juneteenth nearly every year since 2019. Reparations advocates typically push for payments to descendants of African Americans enslaved in the United States, while Juneteenth commemorates the nation’s 1865 end of slavery.

Hirsi did not respond to a request for comment.

Anti-Israel agitators in New York, meanwhile, clashed with police Tuesday during a heated protest against Khalil’s detention, leading to several arrests. The demonstration was part of a coordinated nationwide walkout by students and faculty at elite colleges across the country. Among the crowd was Aidan Parisi, a Columbia graduate student who was arrested last spring for storming Hamilton Hall and suspended for his role in an event featuring terror-tied speakers who called for violence against Jews. Also present was Maryam Iqbal, a Barnard student and vocal anti-Israel activist, who was arrested alongside Parisi during last spring’s illegal encampments at Columbia.

At Columbia, a smaller crowd of about 40 faculty and students walked out of their classes and assembled outside the Low Memorial Library. The protesters called out the interim Columbia president, chanting, “We will never let this slide, Katrina Armstrong you can’t hide” and “Katrina Armstrong what do you say, how many boots did you lick today.”

In a Wednesday statement, Armstrong reiterated her support for all Columbia students.

“I stand by my students, all of my students. I support their right to express their views and to participate in open and respectful dialogue and debate,” she said. “I feel the same responsibility for the wellbeing of all Columbia students as I do for my patients as their doctor. There is nothing more important to me.”

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The White House on Wednesday reaffirmed its threat to take military action against Iran if the country does not consent to negotiations on its contested nuclear weapons program, ratcheting up pressure just a day after Tehran’s hardline leadership categorically rejected diplomatic overtures from the Trump administration.

“To reiterate, President Trump said it clearly that there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or by making a deal,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the Washington Free Beacon. “We hope the Iran Regime puts its people and best interests ahead of terror.”

Tehran, however, says it has no interest in negotiating with America. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei was defiant on Wednesday when he promised to retaliate if the United States resorted to military force.

“Iran does not seek war, but if the Americans and their cohorts do a damn thing whatsoever, Iran’s retaliation is decisive and definite, and the one who will be the loser would be America,” Khamenei said during a meeting with Iranian university students on Wednesday. “Iran is capable of dealing a blow to the aggressor and will definitely hit it back.”

The fiery rhetoric comes less than a week after the White House confirmed that Trump sent a letter to the Iranian leadership asking for diplomatic talks. That letter was delivered Wednesday to Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi during a meeting with a delegation from the United Arab Emirates.

“The claim by the U.S. president that they are ready to negotiate is a deception of world public opinion,” Khamenei said, adding that if Iran “wanted to acquire nuclear weapons, the United States could not have stopped us.”

Just a day earlier, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian expressed a similar sentiment, rejecting talks with Washington and daring it to attack.

“When you threaten me, I don’t want to negotiate with you,” Pezeshkian said Tuesday during a televised speech. “Do whatever damn thing you can.”

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said Tehran may be miscalculating when it dismisses Trump’s threats to start a war.

“When Trump signals all options are on the table, he means that—from good to bad,” Taleblu said. “Despite Iranian newspapers saying Trump is beating an empty drum, his willingness” to kill Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in his first term and to keep imposing crippling sanctions signals the American president’s more recent comments “should not be minimized.”

Trump has repeatedly said he prefers a diplomatic solution to address growing concerns around Iran’s nuclear program but also made clear he will not shy away from the military option.

“I said I hope you’re going to negotiate because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network on Friday.

“We’re down to final strokes with Iran. That’s going to be an interesting time. And we’ll see what happens. But we’re down to the final moments. Final moments. Can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” the president said later in the day from the Oval Office.

Rather than broach the subject of diplomacy, Iran’s leadership has positioned itself as the global leader of an anti-American resistance movement that includes regional terror groups and countries like Russia.

“Today, the bullies of the world say that everyone must obey us and prioritize our interests over their own, but the Islamic Republic of Iran is the only country that has firmly rejected this,” Khamenei emphasized during his Wednesday remarks.

The United States, meanwhile, has sought to increase pressure on Iran’s regime through a combination of tough sanctions and the threat of war.

The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran includes sanctions meant to cripple the country’s illicit oil trade, which brought in billions under the Biden-Harris administration.

The White House is also mulling a plan to intercept Iranian oil tankers at sea, including along key maritime routes in the Malacca Strait and in Asia, according to Reuters.

Other sanctions have already targeted Iran’s so-called shadow fleet, a large array of oil tankers that surreptitiously transport Iran’s illicit crude oil across the globe, primarily to countries like China.

Russia has also promised to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions, with Tehran’s state-controlled media reporting that Moscow “is ready to help Iran despite the ‘maximum pressure’ policy that Trump favors.” Earlier this year, Iran and Russia inked an economic cooperation agreement that will see the two countries “fortify their partnership amid mounting Western sanctions.”

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