🔵 Deportations Start

Author

Citizen Frank
January 24, 2025

Good morning. It’s Friday, January 24.

Important note: cf.org is rebranding to thefrank.com. Soon you’ll find us under our new name.

 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Friday that “deportation flights have begun,” releasing photos of people boarding military aircraft.

“President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences,” she wrote on X.

It is not immediately clear who was boarding the planes or where the images were taken.

A Republican House member introduced a resolution Thursday to amend the U.S. Constitution in order to allow President Donald Trump — and any other future president — to be elected to a third term in the White House.

Trump “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal,” said Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who proposed extending the current maximum of two elected terms.

“It is imperative that we provide President Trump with every resource necessary to correct the disastrous course set by the Biden administration,” Ogles said in a statement.

President Trump is taking the first trip of his term on Friday to North Carolina and California, visiting communities grappling with recovery from natural disasters.

In Fletcher, N.C., Trump is receiving a briefing on recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene — and then meeting with families in Swannanoa.

Trump, who has been critical of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, repeated some of his complaints after landing in Asheville, N.C.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to negotiate a deal to end the war with Russia, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to meet soon.

Trump spoke to reporters after signing multiple executive orders Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office. When a reporter asked if Zelenskyy told him he was ready to negotiate a solution to the war with Russia, Trump provided confirmation.

“Yes, he’s ready to negotiate a deal. He’d like to stop this,” Trump said. “He’s somebody that lost a lot of soldiers, and so did Russia. … Russia lost more soldiers. They lost 800,000. Would you say that’s a lot? I’d say it’s a lot.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers hit the ground running this week, arresting multiple violent offenders in sanctuary cities, including a hostile Haitian alleged gang member with a lengthy rap sheet who said he’s “not going back to Haiti” and raged “F–k Trump, Biden forever!”

ICE officers in Boston made eight noteworthy arrests, including multiple MS-13 gang members, murder and rape suspects and the Haitian alleged gang member, with at least 17 recent convictions, according to Fox News, who rode along with ICE for the arrests.

There was also at least one “collateral” arrest where ICE took an illegal immigrant who wasn’t their initial target into custody, with the arrest in Boston being of an MS-13 gang member who had been released by the sanctuary city on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump has revoked government security protection for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, who have faced threats from Iran since they took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic during Trump’s first administration.

A congressional staffer and a person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personal security details, confirmed the change, but neither could offer an explanation. They said that Pompeo and Hook were told of the loss of protection on Wednesday and that it took effect at 11 p.m. that night.

It’s another sign of steps Trump is taking just days into his return to the White House to target those he has perceived as adversaries.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency in overwhelming bipartisan fashion, making him the second member of President Trump’s national security team to be approved by the upper chamber.

Senators confirmed Ratcliffe in a 74-25 vote. Twenty-one members who caucus with Democrats voted with every present Republican. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) did not vote.

“He will bring valuable knowledge and experience to his new post,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on the floor earlier this week, pointing to Ratcliffe’s tenure as director of national intelligence (DNI) and on the House Intelligence Committee. “Mr. Ratcliffe brings the right experience and the right approach to the CIA, and I look forward to working with him in his new position.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday pardoning 23 of the pro-life activists targeted by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said as he signed the order. “Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.”

The pardons are for 23 “peaceful pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights.” They were prosecuted under the FACE Act and a Reconstruction-era felony conspiracy charge first used for the first time against pro-life activists by the Biden administration.

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