As I was reading over news headlines Friday morning, a story about Donald Trump’s first-day-in-office priorities caught my eye. Unsurprisingly, and thankfully, those priorities center on fulfilling his campaign promise to seal the border from day one of his second term. It’s expected that he could issue several executive orders on January 20, 2025, thus making the United States a safer place from the get-go of Trump 2.0.
We saw the devastating effects that the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies have had on Americans just this past week during the murder trial of illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for brutally murdering Georgia college student Laken Riley. The devastating effects of Joe Biden’s disastrous four years in office were written all over the faces of Laken’s family and friends as they told of the faith-filled, vivacious girl who had her life cut short at the hands of someone who never should have been allowed into the country.
And there are many more American families reeling from the leftist policies that have been shoved down our throats since Biden took office, whether it’s struggling to pay the bills or wondering why so much money is being given to other countries while our own neighbors are suffering. None of us envies the job that awaits President-elect Trump; he is inheriting a terrible economy, rising crime rates, a porous border, and a world on the brink.
One of the things on Trump’s plate is the matter of the Americans who are still being held hostage in Gaza. Let’s be clear: There is no doubt that bringing these hostages home is a top priority for the new Trump administration. At the Republican National Convention back in July, just a few days after being shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, the former/future president put the world on notice that the taking of hostages won’t be tolerated under his watch:
“To the entire world, I tell you this: We want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price,” Trump warned in his speech.
According to the American Jewish Committee, there are seven Americans still being held hostage by Hamas somewhere in Gaza, likely in underground tunnels.
- Edan Alexander
- Itay Chen
- Sagui Dekel-Chen
- Gadi Haggai
- Judi Weinstein Haggai
- Omer Neutra
- Keith Siegel
They’ve been there for nearly 14 months.
Ruby Chen, the father of hostage Itay Chen, recently wrote that the incoming Trump administration gave “new hope to those of us calling for immediate and conclusive actions to bring our loved ones home.” He also wrote of their frustrations:
My wife Hagit and I, along with the many families of the hostages being held in the Hamas dungeons in Gaza, could not have imagined that we would still be in this same position come Election Day, yet here we are. Despite the negotiated release of half of the hostages who were taken into Gaza a year ago, since then the U.S. and Israel can’t get the rest of the hostages out.
Chen added his desire to see Donald Trump have “his Reagan moment,” referring to the release of the 53 Americans held hostage in Iran on January 20, 1981, just after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the nation’s 40th president.
Whether or not we’ll see a “Reagan moment” on his second Inauguration Day remains to be seen, but Trump picking Mike Huckabee to be his ambassador to Israel is a good sign that the Trump administration means business when it comes to the hostages. Huckabee said as much in a recent interview:
“We should have used all of the US force to publicly demand release of all hostages, but especially the four Americans still held. And applied maximum pressure to Iran and Qatar to demand their release,” Huckabee told The Post, saying the stalemate has been “especially frustrating to watch.”
Applying pressure is exactly what we can expect of Trump from day 1, and Huckabee himself thinks a “Trump moment” may be in the offing: “[It] would not surprise me if there is a breakthrough in light of Trump’s election, because they know Trump doesn’t play around.”
