Category: Just Desserts

Iran’s Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani killed in Israeli strike, reports say. Who was he?

Esmail Qaani took command of Iran’s Quds Force after the assassination of his predecessor, Qasem Soleimani, in a US drone strike in 2020

The Quds Force is an elite branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for extraterritorial military operations and supporting proxy groups across the Middle East.

Qaani began his military career during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, leading several brigades before becoming deputy commander of the Quds Force in 1997, serving under Soleimani. Unlike Soleimani, who was often seen on the frontlines with Tehran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, Qaani has maintained a lower profile, conducting meetings privately and away from public view. His leadership has coincided with increased Israeli airstrikes against Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah and other paramilitary groups.

In October 2024, Qaani was reported missing after Israeli airstrikes targeted the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. He had travelled to Lebanon following the death of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in late September. The attack also targeted Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s presumed successor, who has also been unreachable since.

“Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”
– Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

IAF launches major strike on Iran and its nuclear program; PM: A decisive point in our history

Iran has been secretly advancing a plan for the “technological advancement of all parts of the development of a nuclear weapon,” the Israeli military says, after launching strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Reported to have been killed, so far:

Mohammad Bagherim, Chief of the Iranian military
Gholam Ali Rashid, Deputy Chief of the Iranian military
Hossein Salami, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Ali Shamkhani, reported to be Supreme Leader Khamenei’s right hand man
Mohammad Tehranchi, President, Azad University, theoretical physicist.
Fereydoon Abbasi, former head, Atomic Energy Organization & MP.

Strikes reported on:

The D2O (heavy water) manufacturing facility in Arak.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps HQ in Tehran
The Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan

David Hogg Has Humiliating Meltdown on ABC News

On Sunday’s episode of ABC News’ “This Week,”  former Trump White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus made mincemeat out of DNC Vice Chair David Hogg during a heated exchange as Priebus successfully cornered Hogg into defending one the Democratic Party’s recent messaging debacles — advocating for a suspected MS-13 gang member, wife beater, and human trafficker who was deported.

Priebus didn’t hold back, ripping into the current state of the Democratic Party: “They’ve got no message, they’ve got no movement, they’ve got no leader. I mean, it doesn’t get any worse than that.” He blasted Hogg for “defending Harvard” and the DNC for “traveling to El Salvador for MS-13 gang members,” mocking the party’s apparent priorities.

When the host interrupted to note that the deportee in question was only an “alleged” gang member, Priebus criticized Hogg’s pledge to spend $20 million to primary incumbent Democrats.

“You’re taking $20 million… it’s $20 million out of the DNC’s pocket,” he argued. “You can’t be on the board of the fishing and forest company and on Greenpeace at the same time,” he added, calling into question the DNC’s blurred lines between activism and governance.

Hogg jumped in, visibly agitated.

“Let me push back against that,” he began. “This was not an MS-13 gang member, and you damn well know that.”

But Priebus didn’t flinch.

“Oh, come on,” he fired back. “So keep defending this guy, you’re just digging your own hole.”

Priebus is right. Evidence of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s connections to MS-13 came out last week, as did court documents showing that his wife accused him of domestic abuse and that he’s suspected of human trafficking.

Nevertheless, Hogg dug himself in deeper with the same old talking points we’ve heard before.

“In America, we have due process and we are a land of law and order,” he said. “This administration is repeatedly showing time and time again, they do not care about what the Supreme Court says, they do not care about the rule of law.”

Priebus responded with a reality check. “CNN just did a poll… most Americans think that all illegal immigrants should be deported, by the way.”

Hogg claimed that Abrego Garcia was denied counsel and due process and that “you cannot defend sending people… to another country where they don’t have rights.” Actually, you can defend sending an illegal immigrant back to his home country.

Naturally, Priebus didn’t let the moment slip. “If you want to try to defend the constitutionality of deporting an illegal immigrant that’s here — he’s here illegally,” Priebus insisted before pointing out that “every intel community agency and the White House say he is a member of MS-13.”

The Pentagon Must Go on the Offensive to Defeat Politicized Officers.

That Space Force colonel in command in Greenland – well, formerly in command in Greenland – who ran her fool mouth to undermine her commander-in-chief demonstrates an all-too-common problem with today’s senior military officers.

We keep seeing these passive-aggressive, and not so passively aggressive, officers acting out and throwing childish tantrums of resistance to the President that the people of the United States elected. It’s inconceivable to those of us from the military who won the Cold War; we stayed the hell out of politics. Somehow, they must have missed that civilian control block of instruction; non-partisanship is a vital principle of our officer corps.

To be political on duty is a violation of our oaths. It’s a violation of our ethos as officers. And it’s got to be brutally crushed – even Barack Obama understood that when he properly canned General Stanley McChrystal for having a staff that thought it was okay to diss the President to reporters (incredibly, after this massive leadership failure, McChrystal has gone on to sell his leadership insights to eager civilian suckers, but that’s another story).

We simply cannot have a functioning military that tolerates individuals putting their own personal prerogatives ahead of the mission – and that’s exactly what this political posturing is.

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Trump Administration Sends Brutally Honest Response Saying Judge Can’t Undo a Perfectly Good Deportation

The Justice Department filed an application for an emergency stay of an order requiring an adjudicated MS-13 member be brought back the United States that stopped within inches of calling the district court judge who issued the order a moron. In a tersely worded brief that demolished the entire proceeding, the Justice Department’s brief ridiculed the order by Obama-appointed Judge Paula Xinis to “facilitate and effectuate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to the US by Monday night, saying: “Because the United States has no control over Abrego Garcia, however, Defendants have no independent authority to “effectuate” his return to the United States—any more than they would have the power to follow a court order commanding them to “effectuate” the end of the war in Ukraine, or a return of the hostages from Gaza;” see Judge Orders Trump to Return Deported Man Sent to El Salvadoran Prison, Sets Up a Massive Showdown – RedState.

Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador, who is portrayed as a “Maryland father” in most news reports, entered the US illegally in 2011. In 2019, he was arrested on allegations of membership in the violent Salvadoran gang called Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. At that time, he applied for political asylum, which was denied. He was given an order of removal, but a judge put his deportation on hold on the grounds that he might be in danger if he returned to El Salvador. In early March, Garcia was arrested and put on a plane to El Salvador and the Terrorist Confinement Facility, CECOT.

His attorneys sued, and a judge ordered the Trump administration to return Garcia to Maryland. In her order, the judge called the deportation “an illegal act.”

When White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt reacted by saying, “We suggest the Judge contact [El Salvador’s] President [Nayib] Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” it struck me, and many others, as the kind of remark you can make if you are in no danger of facing the judge in a courtroom. As it turned out, she perfectly captured the tone of the administration’s request for a stay of her order.

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Looks like ‘Stop Drop & Roll’ didn’t cut it for the jihadi.
Orange car in the lower right center

I think this indicates DOGE cut off another bunch of grifters money supply

National Gun-Control Group Lays Off Most Staff

March For Our Lives is slashing its employees and appointing a new leader.

The gun-control group announced it would cut ties with 13 of its 16 full-time staffers last week. It also named a new executive director. Jaclyn Corin, a 24-year-old Parkland survivor and group co-founder, will take the reins as the organization attempts to navigate bumpy terrain in the wake of the 2024 election.

“We are facing financial challenges as an organization, not unlike many nonprofit advocacy organizations in this time,” Corin told The 19th. “I am sure things would look differently with a different outcome of the election, but these are the systems and circumstances in which we have to make adjustments based on the financial situation we find ourselves in. It is incredibly unfortunate that these cuts have to happen.”

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DOJ Announces Second Amendment Investigation into LA County

California is pretty hostile toward guns, and that’s largely driven by the large urban areas like San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Oakland–because I had to hit names that didn’t start with “S” eventually–and, of course, Los Angeles.

In fact, these regions have taken the hostility toward the Second Amendment to new heights with ridiculous fees for concealed carry that put it out of reach for many law-abiding citizens.

That’s wrong, and we all know it.

Unfortunately, the only way we’ve seen to deal with it is for private parties to file expensive lawsuits.

Well, now the Department of Justice is getting involved.

Protecting the Second Amendment rights of ordinary, law-abiding Americans is a high priority for this Administration.

As part of a broader review of restrictive firearms-related laws in California and other States, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division today announced an investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to determine whether it is engaging in a pattern or practice of depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights.

A recent federal court decision found that “the law and facts [we]re clearly in … favor” of two private plaintiffs who challenged the lengthy eighteen-month delays that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department had imposed when processing their concealed handgun license applications. And the Civil Rights Division has reason to believe that those two plaintiffs are not the only residents of Los Angeles County experiencing similarly long delays that are unduly burdening, or effectively denying, the Second Amendment rights of the people of Los Angeles.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that the Second Amendment is not “a second-class right.” And over the past two decades, the Supreme Court has recognized that the Second Amendment is a fundamental, individual constitutional right and has taken multiple opportunities to strengthen Second Amendment protections for ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

Some States and localities, however, have resisted this recent pro-Second Amendment caselaw. And California has been a particularly egregious offender. In response to recent Supreme Court caselaw, California enacted new legislation to further restrict the ability of ordinary, law-abiding Californians to keep and bear arms.

And many California localities appear to be imposing additional burdens beyond those required by California state law, including by subjecting ordinary, law-abiding Californians to expensive fees and lengthy weight times associated with applications for concealed handgun licenses.

“This Department of Justice will not stand idly by while States and localities infringe on the Second Amendment rights of ordinary, law-abiding Americans,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and under my watch, the Department will actively enforce the Second Amendment just like it actively enforces other fundamental constitutional rights.”

Attorney General Bondi hopes that states and localities will voluntarily embrace their duty to protect the Second Amendment rights of their citizens. But if necessary, today’s announcement will be the first of many similar investigations, lawsuits, or other actions involving other localities in California, the State of California itself, and any other states or localities that insist on unduly burdening, or effectively denying, the Second Amendment rights of their ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

Now, I’ve heard a lot of people recently complain that part of the problem with the Trump administration is [insert state law here], and I kind of shrugged. Those are state laws, not federal. There’s not much Trump could really do about it.

And he really can’t. He can’t make those laws go away with the stroke of a pen.

But this right here is something he can do. It’s something that the Department of Justice needs to do a lot more, too, because while Los Angeles County is pretty bad, they’re from the only bad actor.

Luckily, Bondi apparently plans on going after them, too.

Look, Bruen found that states could, in fact, require permits. They didn’t have to all go to constitutional carry, which sucks but it is what it is. That’s fine. We can live with it. We’ve all dealt with it before.

But when you’re requiring permits and you make it impossible for many to get them, you end up with the same situation that led to Bruen in the first place. Then, it was “may issue” laws that required “good cause” for a permit to be issued. Now, it’s just about having enough money, then waiting indefinitely until the issuing agency gets around to issuing the permit.

It’s ridiculous.

Now, the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice–one which has largely ignored this particular civil right historically–is now stepping in.

Will this be enough for the Second Amendment advocates who are displeased with what they’ve seen from the Trump administration so far? I’d say probably not. I like what we’ve seen, and this is probably the most pro-Second Amendment stuff we’ve seen from an administration in my lifetime, but there are still a lot of laws on the books that infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. Unless those are also targeted, as well as seeing a lot more pro-gun moves from pro-gun elected officials in Washington, I doubt they’re going to be happy.

Already, some are asking where the actions against these other issuing agencies are, and not without at least some cause.

Still, this is another move in the right direction, and we didn’t lose our rights overnight. We won’t get them back that quickly, either. But there has to be more than this in the long run for anyone to be really satisfied.

You Want to Win a War? This Is How You Win a War

There’s more good news out of the Middle East, I’m happy to report. On the heels of yesterday’s news that the Israeli Defense Force was doing an admirable and rapid job of eliminating Hamas leadership in an explosive game of Whack-a-Mole, today we learn that the Gazans themselves finally show signs of turning against their terrorist government.

We saw tiny signs of this in the awful weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror invasion that kicked off the Israel-Hamas War, such as the old Gazan woman who accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid meant for the people. “Everything goes to [Hamas] houses,” she complained. “They take it; let them take me, shoot me, or do whatever they want with me.”

But Tuesday saw a rare mass protest against Hamas.

Even the mayor of Beit Lahia, Gaza, got in on the action.

If Hamas finds him, I suspect he won’t die well.

Why the mainstream media chooses not to air clips like these is anyone’s guess, but anyone’s most cynical and accusatory guess is probably the correct one.

None of this is perfect, of course. “Why aren’t they chanting to release the hostages then?” one critic wondered. Then there’s Iran, the official sponsor of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Until Iran is put back in the box President Donald Trump had them in during his first term, the terrorist kudzu will grow back.

But turning the population against the people who started the war is how you end a war, and Israel’s renewed offensive — the IDF’s WWII-style rubble-ization of the Gaza Strip — might be doing just that.

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Hamas Keeps Getting Deader.

One good way to tell if your effort to eliminate your enemy’s leadership is going well is if you blow up their new defacto prime minister before his people have had a chance to learn that the old prime minister had been blown up, too.

True story.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Hamas PM Ismail Barhoum was killed in an Israeli Air Force (IAF) airstrike just five days after his predecessor (pre-deceasor?) Issam al-Da’alis was — you guessed it! — killed in an IAF airstrike. With an almost coy dryness, the Journal headline read, “Israel Is Killing Hamas Leaders in Quick Succession.”

“Israel has killed at least another four senior political figures in a week of strikes, including the deputy ministers of justice and interior, as well as the head of Hamas’s internal security agency,” the paper noted. It almost doesn’t need to be said that Israeli intelligence — not to mention IAF targeting — has been spot-on.

Honestly, Hamas should have just let the hostages go and ended this 18-month-old war already — but where’s the opportunity to murder more Jews in that? When the bad guys decide that martyrdom and murder are preferable to peace, you give them as much of the former as you can while preventing as much of the latter.

Meanwhile, the Gazan propaganda wing continues with its shopworn “We’re the real victims!” schtick.

Don’t fall for the schtick. Times of Israel reported yesterday that Hamas published “a propaganda video showing a sign of life from Israeli hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, who were both kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7 [2023] and are still being held in Gaza. “Hamas has previously issued similar videos of hostages it is holding, in what Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare.”

If at the local level, the Israeli military and intelligence services are performing well, the international scene still falls under “It’s complicated.” At a meeting Sunday in Cairo, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said, “Hamas should have no future role in the governance of the Gaza Strip.” That’s all well and good but Kallas also repeated the usual EU demands for restraint on Israel’s part that would make rooting Hamas out of Gaza virtually impossible.

“Tomorrow I will be in Israel to express concerns about the resumption of hostilities in the Gaza Strip,” Kallas said, adding that “the EU is clear that Hamas must release all hostages, Israel must allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, and negotiations must resume.”

Well, which is it? Does Hamas have a role in Gaza or is the EU going to give up the moral preening long enough for Israel to do what needs to be done?

Israel’s first partner in Cold Peace, Egypt, remains as stubborn as ever. Cairo still refuses to take in 500,000-700,000 displaced Gaza Arabs, despite President Donald Trump’s offer to build them “much better housing” than they had in Gaza. Now the White House might be brandishing a stick to go with the carrot. Egyptian sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed this weekend that continued refusal “could mean redirecting economic aid meant for Egypt to other countries.”

Egypt currently receives about $1.5 billion annually in U.S. aid. Cairo’s refusal highlights the historical undesirability of allowing large numbers of Gaza or West Bank Arabs into your country. West Bank and Gaza “refugees” attempted to murder King Hussein of Jordan in 1970 and managed to permanently wreck Lebanon.

So you can’t really blame Cairo for not wanting to take in half the population of Gaza. But with the Strip in ruins — and bound to get worse before it gets better — it’s a bit like Last Call. They don’t have to go to Egypt but they can’t stay here.

Panic Hits Democrats As Trump Goes After Their Money and Infrastructure.

President Trump is tearing out the infrastructure of the Democrat party and setting off panic in progressive circles. According to a report in the New York Times, Trump’s attacks on Democrat funding, fundraising, organizing, and legal organizations are presenting the Democrats with a threat that only Republicans have encountered in the past.

The report highlights Trump imposing what amounts to economic sanctions on three major Democrat-affiliated law firms — Perkins Coie, Covington & Burlington, and Paul Weiss — via executive orders; see Trump Strips Security Clearance From Law Firm That Helped Hillary’s Campaign Fund Debunked Steele Dossier – RedState and Trump’s Executive Order Barring Two Democrat Law Firms From Federal Business Rattles ‘Big Law’ – RedState.

One of those firms, Paul Weiss, has made its peace with Trump (‘Big Law’ Firm Admits Wrongdoing, Abandons DEI, and Pays Reparations to Meet Trump’s Demands), while the others are fighting him in court.

Also of concern is the possibility that Trump may seek to review and revoke the non-profit status of some of the blatantly partisan non-profits operated for the benefit of progressive causes and candidates.

Mr. Trump himself appeared to call into question the charitable tax-exempt status of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, a Democratic-aligned watchdog group that has long been among the more aggressive litigants against him and is currently suing to force the release of records related to Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting.

“CREW is a charitable organization, and that’s a political thing,” Mr. Trump said on Friday at the Justice Department, singling out Norm Eisen, a former board member, as a “vicious and violent” person who has “been after me for nine years.” (Mr. Eisen’s new group, State Democracy Defenders Fund, has also fought some of the new administration’s actions in court.)

Jordan Libowitz, a CREW spokesman, declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s mention of the group.

CREW is non-partisan in the same way I’m non-partisan. Not mentioned is the article is the odious “Media Matters for America,” which, while a non-profit, functions as the special needs wing of the Democrat non-profit group.

Most of the article is devoted to the attention devoted to ActBlue and an attempt to frame criticism of ActBlue as some fantasy Elon Musk has dreamed up.

“Something stinks about ActBlue,” Mr. Musk wrote March 7 in one of several social media posts about the platform. A day later, he claimed without evidence that ActBlue was funded by Democratic megadonors including Herb Sandler, who died in 2019.

Any time you see a leftist media outlet refer to something as being “without evidence,” you know that what they are talking about is correct.

BACKGROUND:

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Trump is deworming Washington — now to keep the parasites out for good.

Washington, DC, is riddled with parasites sucking the life out of our nation.
Time for a thorough deworming.

Jonathan Rauch, in a book by the same name, called it “demosclerosis.”
Mancur Olson, in his classic “The Rise and Decline of Nations,” called it a “web of special interests.”

I call it the “parasite class.”

All refer to a collection of bureaucrats, lobbyists, contractors, nonprofits, non-governmental organizations and connected unions and corporations that have increasingly run our federal government for their own benefit, fattening themselves with the help of diverted taxpayer dollars.

I confess that until recently, I assumed nothing could be done about these problems until an unmistakable financial collapse took place, forcing massive slashes in spending and regulation of the sort that we’ve seen in Argentina under Javier Milei.

The situation was desperate, but no one was serious about dealing with it.
That has all changed now.
The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency are making some of the cuts that it would be forced to make in the event of a financial collapse — ahead of the collapse.

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Trump Is Right to Deport Hamas Supporters:

Federal law authorizes denying or revoking the visa of anyone who supports terrorist activity.

Six weeks into the second Trump administration, and days after President Trump vowed to push back on “illegal protests” on college campuses, the State Department has pulled the first visa of a foreign student who engaged in pro-Hamas disruptions. That’s the right thing to do if we want to fix campus cultures. And contrary to disingenuous critics, such a move poses no First Amendment problems.

Indeed, it’s a basic application of U.S. immigration law, which says that people here on a visa (tourist, student, employment, or otherwise) who reveal themselves to be ineligible for that visa—“inadmissible,” in the parlance of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA)—can have their visa revoked. As I wrote in a broader analysis of campus-related civil rights issues after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, “The Immigration and Nationality Act allows the denial or revocation of a visa of ‘any alien who . . . endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.’” Biden’s State Department also told then-Senator Marco Rubio that it could revoke the visas of Hamas supporters.

But that’s not all Trump can do. The INA’s inadmissibility provision also empowers the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens” whom he determines to be “detrimental to the interests of the United States” or to impose on them “any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.” During Trump’s first term, the Supreme Court upheld that broad grant of presidential discretion to vet, restrict, and even ban immigrants—and thus to direct executive-agency action in that regard—at the culmination of the high-profile “travel ban” litigation. In Trump v. Hawaii, the Court okayed an executive order restricting travel from various countries, with Chief Justice John Roberts affirming that the only statutory requirement is that the president “find” the entry of the affected aliens to be “detrimental to the national interest.”

That’s exactly what’s happening now. In one of the first executive orders Trump signed, he directed federal agencies to strengthen vetting and screening of those seeking admission and those already in the country, because “the United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.” Then, as part of the “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” he ordered the use of “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

All of this makes eminent sense: it’s the government’s duty to screen out visitors and migrants who would be harmful to our country, including those who reject our values or are hostile to our way of life, such as Communists, Nazis, or Islamists. When I got my green card, and again when I naturalized, I had to affirm that I wasn’t affiliated with these groups “or any other totalitarian party.” To give another example in a different context, in 2020, 1,000 Chinese nationals had their visas revoked for being national security risks—and the Biden administration successfully defended that Trump action in court.

These core government functions are supported by law. As the INA says, “The admission to the United States of any alien as a nonimmigrant shall be for such time and under such conditions as the Attorney General may by regulations prescribe.” Other provisions of the law cover “travel controls of citizens and aliens,” “issuance of visas,” and “deportable aliens.”

While the government can’t send foreigners to jail for saying things it doesn’t like, it can and should deny or pull visas for those who advocate for causes inimical to the United States. There’s nothing objectional or controversial about removing those who harass, intimidate, vandalize, and otherwise interfere with an educational institution’s core mission. More, please.

Chief Justice John Roberts pauses judge’s order for Trump admin to pay foreign aid contractors by midnight

U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts on Wednesday paused a federal judge’s order that required the Trump administration to pay around $2 billion in foreign aid funds to contractors by midnight.

The ruling comes after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block the release of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding, which the federal judge had required by midnight. Officials had said they would not be able to comply with the judge’s order.

The Trump administration said U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali’s order had created “an untenable payment plan at odds with the President’s obligations under Article II to protect the integrity of the federal fisc and make appropriate judgements(sic) about foreign aid – clear forms of irreparable harm.”

Any response from the groups that are fighting the Trump administration is due before Friday at 12 p.m., meaning the pause could potentially be relatively short-lived.

The Trump administration said it was eliminating more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.