WND

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is now revealing what he calls “riduclous” requests by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky before the fiery exchange Friday with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Appearing on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, Lutnick said: “Forty-five minutes before the meltdown, the fact was Zelensky never stopped asking for, you know, ‘I will give no concessions, they’ve got to leave my land, I want reparations of $300 billion, and I want the United States to give me security guarantees,’ while they’re at war with Russia.

“And that’s why the president called it World War III. You’re gambling with World War III.

“We’re not gonna give you security guarantees while you’re at war with Russia. It’s just ridiculous. His requests were ridiculous. They were not reasonable. The president let it go for a while.

“Our president is there to make peace, as he said, end the death. And Zelensky was not there to make peace.

“He was there to strike some make-believe bargain that he had in his mind. And eventually that just ran its course, and Donald Trump said I can’t take this nonsense anymore, and made it crystal clear he’s the peacemaker, and if Zelensky’s not interested in peace, then he should go home and think about it.”

.@howardlutnick: “Zelenskyy was not there to make peace. He was there to strike some sort of make-believe bargain he had in his mind, and… @POTUS made it crystal clear. He’s the peacemaker — and if Zelenskyy’s not interested in peace, he should go home and think about it.” pic.twitter.com/HCetclCDZY

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 2, 2025

Lutnick noted it was extremely disappointing, as ceremonial signing desks and an elaborate lunch had been prepared with the expectation of a rare earth mineral deal being signed, but Zelensky blew the deal.

“This was designed to be beautiful, but instead we had lunch by ourselves,” he added.

Is the news we hear every day actually broadcasting messages from God? The answer is an absolute yes! Find out how!

Later in the program, former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who is now CEO of Trump Media, told Bartiromo he expects Zelensky or a representative of Ukraine to come back and sign a deal with America.

“Either him or somebody else,” Nunes said, “but they’re going to have to end the war and they’re gonna have to build economic ties with the West.”

If you watch the full Trump-Zelensky press conference, it is very clear that Zelensky, not Trump or Vance, became the antagonist. Both POTUS and VP were very respectful and cordial until Zelensky very publicly ignited a firestorm.

It all starts at 40:30

1) Zelensky essentially… pic.twitter.com/xrM4cWSPny

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) February 28, 2025

On another issue, Lutnick previewed the tariffs Trump is expected to slap on Mexico and Canada this Tuesday as both countries have been complicit in moving Chinese-made fentanyl into the U.S.

“The fentanyl continues to come into this country and continues to murder our people,” the Commerce secretary explained. “And the ingredients are made in China they’re sent to Mexico and Canada and then they come and attack our country and that’s got to end.

“There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are, we’re gonna leave that for the president and his team to negotiate. … But China’s got to stop making these ingredients.

Commerce Secretary @howardlutnick on the March 4th tariffs: “There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday, on Mexico and Canada… China’s got to stop making these [fentanyl] ingredients.” pic.twitter.com/ilkhn1jmMe

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 2, 2025

“Remember, in 2019, the Chinese told President Trump at that time that they would put the death penalty on anybody who made fentanyl. And today, they’re giving the maximum subsidy they possibly can to the people making those ingredients.

“So the Chinese need to stop this murder of Americans and Donald Trump is the only president who protects the American people.”

Follow Joe on X @JoeKovacsNews

Officials in the Fresno Unified School District in California, with 71,000 students, have set up a number of academic support programs for them.

Only they are “marketed” only to black students.

Which has prompted the Pacific Legal Foundation to launch a legal challenge to the district for “unlawfully gating” access to the student help programs.

“It is unfair and unconstitutional to gate access to valuable educational programs based on a child’s race, regardless of whether the exclusion is explicit or implicit,” explained PLF lawyer Wilson Freeman.

“Taxpayer-funded academic support programs should be available to all students based on need, not race. FUSD’s practices violate multiple legal protections, including the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, the Civil Rights Act, and California’s Proposition 209.”

The district, in fact, has an “Office of African American Academic Acceleration,” to address achievement gaps between black students and others.

That office runs 13 various programs with a $12 million budget, and focuses “on mentoring African American middle and high school students,” the legal team explained.

While the programs lack a specific racial requirement, “they are marketed exclusively to African American students,” the legal challenge charges.

“Administrators direct teachers to inform only African American parents and students about these opportunities, leaving other students unaware.”

The report said Fresno is the state’s third-largest school district, and the “acceleration” office was created back in 2017.

It was “started with a $742,000 budget to mentor African American middle and high school students,” the report said.

“Academic need doesn’t discriminate. It affects students of all races who need extra support to reach their full potential. This includes children whose parents belong to Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), a nonprofit group that fights for equal treatment under the law,” the legal team explained.

“These parents have children in Fresno schools who could benefit from A4 programs but were either kept unaware of the opportunities or, worse, led to believe they weren’t eligible because they’re not black. The parents are also deeply troubled that the district spends millions in taxpayer dollars on programs that de facto exclude their children for no other reason than skin color.”

The lawyers pointed out the Supreme Court has said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Volodymyr Zelensky’s studio in Ukraine posted a disgusting and vulgar reference to President Trump after the Ukrainian leader was walked out of the White House on Friday.

The Kvartal 95 Facebook page posted a photo of a piano with Trump’s name on it.

The photo is in reference to the famous skit where Zelensky played the piano with his penis and no pants on.

The photo, featuring a black grand piano with ‘Trump’ written on it, was published by the studio on Facebook and Instagram on Friday after Zelensky was asked to leave the White House.

President Zelensky was removed from the Trump White House on Friday after he:

After Zelensky met with these US Senators, he then went to the White House, where he:

• disrespected the US President and his cabinet
• spoke over both President Trump and VP J.D. Vance
• called J.D. by his first name and not the title
• Argued with Trump and Vance
• Disrespected the American audience
• And then, he was escorted from the White House.

It was a complete disaster.

Zelensky did not come to make peace. He came to continue the war and the devastation of Ukraine.

Here is the video of Zelensky playing the piano with no pants on, in case you’ve never seen it.
It appears his studio is as condescending and ungrateful to the United States as their founder is.

This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.

WATCH:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Ukraine has secured a hefty £2.6 billion defense loan (approximately $3.56 billion) from the United Kingdom one day after being unceremoniously kicked out of the White House.

The loan, announced during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to London, is earmarked to bolster Ukraine’s military capabilities, enabling investments in critical equipment such as air defense systems and artillery.

This financial support comes on top of the UK’s existing £3 billion (approximately $3.77 billion) annual military aid to Ukraine.

The agreement was formalized during a meeting between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Zelenskyy at Downing Street.

According to the press release:

The new £2.26 billion is the UK’s contribution to the G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans to Ukraine scheme, in which $50 billion from G7 countries will be delivered to Ukraine for its military, budget and reconstruction needs. The loan will be repaid using the extraordinary profits on immobilised Russian sovereign assets.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves made the announcement alongside Defence Secretary John Healey while visiting Ukrainian personnel who are being trained in the UK. More than 45,000 personnel have been trained in the UK under Operation INTERFLEX and the scheme has been extended to at least the end of 2025.

The UK’s £2.26 billion loan is earmarked as budgetary support for Ukraine’s military spending, enabling the Ukrainians to invest in key equipment to support their efforts against Russia, such as air defence, artillery and wider equipment support. It comes on top of the UK’s existing £3 billion a year military aid for Ukraine, which the Prime Minister re-committed to within his first week in office.

The UK has sent around 400 different capabilities to Ukraine, with Defence Secretary John Healey MP recently announcing that the UK will supply 650 Lightweight Multirole Missile systems to Ukraine to boost the country’s air defences.

[…]

The $50 billion G7 ERA scheme was first announced at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Apulia, Italy, in June this year. Russia’s obligation under international law to pay for the damage it has caused to Ukraine is clear and this G7 agreement is an important step to ensuring this happens. Today the UK has announced its contribution to the scheme and will introduce domestic legislation in the coming weeks to enable the transfer of the new funds to Ukraine as quickly as possible.

The loan is on top of the £12.8 billion already committed in military, economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine.

The funding comes alongside the UK and international partners introducing the largest and most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy. Without this, Russia would have over $400 billion more for its war machine – enough to fund its illegal invasion for a further four years. The war is having an economic and human cost for Russia; it is soaking up 40% of Russia’s annual budget and last month the country suffered its highest rate of daily casualties since the war began.

The loan announcement comes ahead of the Chancellor’s attendance of the International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. later this week, at which she will underline on the international stage that the UK and its partners stand united and will not let aggressors like Putin succeed. Earlier this month Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Downing Street to discuss his victory plan for Ukraine.

This development follows a tumultuous visit by President Zelenskyy to Washington, D.C., where a meeting with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office escalated into a heated confrontation.

The U.S. leaders accused Zelenskyy of disrespect and questioned his commitment to peace, leading to an abrupt end to discussions and the cancellation of a planned minerals deal.

[Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com]

House Republicans are drawing up plans to scrub Black Lives Matter Plaza from the capital, The Post has learned.

The two-block woke eyesore, just steps from the White House, features the phrase Black Lives Matter in 35-foot-tall yellow block letters, written across the asphalt of two city blocks at the end of 16th Street NW.

A “DEFUND THE POLICE” message alongside the mural was added by activists and later removed during roadwork in August 2020.

“The House Oversight Committee and the Trump Administration are working on delivering a number of reforms to make our nation’s capital safe and end left-wing pet projects. This includes addressing partisan abuses by the District government such as Black Lives Matter Plaza,” says House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky).

The Trump administration today announced that the number of illegal-alien border crossing attempts in February was the lowest in U.S. history – a mere 8.326.

President Trump shared the data on social media, writing, “There were only 8,326 apprehensions of illegals by Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico border, all of whom were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary, prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.”

Continuing, Trump announced, “The invasion of our country is OVER.”

During the Biden administration, there were as many as 300,000 illegal crossings in a month, “and virtually ALL of them were released into our County,” Trump noted.

? HISTORIC LOW ?

February saw the lowest illegal crossings in history—just 8,326. Every illegal was removed or prosecuted.

Under Biden? 300,000+ per month.

The Border is CLOSED. The Invasion is OVER. ?￰ﾟﾇﾸ pic.twitter.com/Ojl0TM1GlQ

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 1, 2025

CBS reported that on some days during a record spike in illegal crossings under President Biden, Border Patrol recorded more than 8,000 apprehensions in a single day.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also posted on X, thanking the president for his leadership.

“February was the lowest month in recorded history for encounters at our border,” wrote Noem. “The world is hearing our message: do not come to our country illegally. If you do, we will find you, arrest you, and send you back. Thank you President @realDonaldTrump for your strong leadership and to our brave @CBP officers and agents for keeping America safe.

“We’re just getting started.”

A federal judge late Friday evening blocked President Trump’s executive order restricting federal aid to hospitals and healthcare clinics that perform transgender surgeries on minors.

Trump previously signed two executive orders aimed at protecting children from monsters who surgically mutilate minors and give them cross-sex hormones.

President Trump’s order directed federally funded programs such as Medicaid, military and other insurance programs to exclude transgender surgeries.

Various left-wing LGBTQ and family doctor groups sued Trump to challenge the executive orders.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that President Trump’s executive order is “unlawful and unconstitutional” because it blocks federal funds previously allocated by Congress.

On Friday US District Judge Lauren King, a Biden appointee, blocked Trump’s executive orders after her previous restraining order expired.

The judge said Trump’s executive order doesn’t target surgeries on “cisgender children.”

“In fact, its inadequate ‘means-end fit’ would prevent federally funded medical providers from providing necessary medical treatments to transgender youth that are completely unrelated to gender identity,” the judge wrote, according to AP. “For example, a cisgender teen could obtain puberty blockers from such a provider as a component of cancer treatment, but a transgender teen with the same cancer care plan could not.”

The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump’s plan to pull federal funding from institutions that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth will remain blocked on a long-term basis under a federal judge’s ruling in Seattle late Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King previously granted a two-week restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington, Oregon and Minnesota sued the Trump administration — Colorado has since joined the case.

King’s temporary order expired Friday, and she held arguments that day before issuing a preliminary injunction blocking most of Trump’s plan pending a final decision on the merits of the case. She rejected a portion of the states’ challenge regarding the order’s protections against female genital mutilation, on grounds that “no credible threat of prosecution exists” in such cases.