The Biden administration announced a new $500 million military aid package to Ukraine Thursday, weeks before President-elect Trump takes office.
"The United States is providing another significant package of urgently needed weapons and equipment to our Ukrainian partners as they defend against Russia's ongoing attacks," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The package announced Thursday includes drones; High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) artillery and ammunition; armored vehicles; nuclear, chemical and radiological protective equipment; and other equipment.
Trump's election victory has raised questions about whether he will continue to aid Ukraine with billions in assistance.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance criticized the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine, and the former president said on the campaign trial he would bring an end to the war before even entering office.
Vance made headlines this year after he suggested the best way to end the war was for Ukraine to cede the land Russia has seized and for a demilitarized zone to be established, a proposal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flatly rejected.
During his visit to Paris last weekend, Trump met with Zelenskyy, where the pair were expected to discuss the ongoing conflict.
Fox News Digital's Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
In the waning days of the Biden administration, President-elect Trump is bucking his predecessor's "don't" doctrine as a deterrent to foreign adversaries, instead issuing tough warnings before even taking office.
"If the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity," Trump warned Hamas on his Truth Social account Monday.
"Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!" Trump added.
War broke out in the Middle East on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. Terrorists killed more than 1,100 people and kidnapped more than 200, with Hamas still holding 101 hostages, including seven Americans, in Gaza more than a year after the war began.
The White House and Israeli government have worked for months to secure a hostage release deal, but have been unsuccessful.
Trump's tough language against Hamas, which included warning those responsible for holding the hostages that they "will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America," stands in stark contrast to President Biden's "don't" doctrine regarding the war in Israel.
"And my message to any state or any other hostile actor thinking about attacking Israel remains the same as it was a week ago: Don’t. Don’t. Don’t," he said.
War continued despite the warning, including from Iranian proxies against Israel.
This year, Biden doubled down on his warning of "don't" aimed at Iran. When asked by reporters about Iran's expectation to attack Israel in April, he said his message to Tehran is: "Don't."
"We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he added.
Again in August, Biden warned Iran against attacking Israel with the one-word threat.
Biden's common response to deter foreign adversaries from attacking Israel is viewed as a failed policy, with conservative security experts and others slamming the message as weak.
"The Administration keeps saying 'don't' to Iran – but then does nothing to impose costs. This weakness means the risk from Iran continues to grow," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted in August.
"Well, he said, ‘Don’t’ multiple times, and ‘Don’t’ isn’t a national security policy," Pompeo added later in a comment to Fox News. "It’s not even a deterrent.
"So much for President Biden telling bad guys ‘Don’t’ actually being an effective deterrent. Every time he says 'Don’t,' they do," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote in a post in April, after Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel.
"Biden's approach with Iran and the Middle East is backwards," Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on X. "Now as we risk entering WWIII, the US must stand by Israel's commitment to democracy. The president must stand firm, and stop coddling Iran immediately."
"I guess Biden's speechwriters have him down to one word now. At least he can remember it. Worse when referring to the hospital carnage he calls Hamas the other team," Fox News' Greg Gutfeld quipped after the war in Israel broke out last year, mocking Biden's use of the word "don't."
Trump had campaigned on ending the wars in both Ukraine and Israel, both of which began under the Biden administration, and claimed that neither war would have been launched if he had been president.
"The Ukraine situation is so horrible, the Israeli situation is so horrible. We are going to get them solved very fast," Trump said on the campaign trail in January.
Israeli officials celebrated Trump's tough stance against terrorists in the Middle East and his demand for hostages to be released by next month.
"Thank you and bless you Mr. President-elect," President Isaac Herzog of Israel said in a post on social media. "We all pray for the moment we see our sisters and brothers back home!"
The nation's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, added, "How refreshing it is to hear clear and morally sound statements that do not create a false equivalence or call for addressing ‘both sides.’ This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters, and defeating them, rather than giving in to their absurd demands."
"President Trump is working towards international peace. In anticipation of the incoming Trump administration, Iran has called off its reprisal attack on Israel and negotiations to end the war in Gaza and Russia's war in Ukraine have accelerated. One former NATO Supreme Allied Commander says America's enemies are 'concerned, they're nervous – [and] they ought to be,'" the Trump War Room said in an email this week titled "Promises Kept – And President Trump Hasn't Even Been Inaugurated Yet."
President-elect Trump promised there would be "all hell to pay" if the hostages being held captive by Hamas are not released prior to when he takes office on Jan. 20.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said nothing was being done to free those being held by the Iran-backed terror group since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel and killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped at least 250 others.
"Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!" Trump wrote.
"Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity," Trump added.
On Saturday, Hamas released a video of an Israeli-American hostage pleading for his release.
The footage shows Edan Alexander, 20, covering his face and crying. He was abducted by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
Alexander explained that he had been a prisoner for over 420 days and delivered forced messages to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump. Netanyahu spoke with Alexander's family and is determined "to take every action to bring them back home," his office said Monday.
Trump said those responsible for taking the hostages "will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America."
More than a year after the attacks, a permanent cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas remains elusive. Israeli forces continue to conduct military operations in Gaza.
A cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon was reached in November following a year of attacks targeting Israel's north by Hezbollah. On Monday, Israel said Hezbollah broke the cease-fire by launching two projectiles. No one was harmed.
"We are determined to continue to enforce the cease-fire, and to respond to any violation by Hezbollah – minor or serious," Netanyahu said.
When President Abraham Lincoln first proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, little did he know he was spelling the beginning of the end to the prominence of the original patriotic celebration held during the last week of November: Evacuation Day.
In November 1863, Lincoln issued an order thanking God for harvest blessings, and by the 1940s, Congress had declared the 11th month of the calendar year's fourth Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day.
That commemoration, though, combined with the gradual move toward détente with what is now the U.S.' strongest ally – Great Britain – displaced the day Americans celebrated the last of the Redcoats fleeing their land.
Following the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, New York City, just 99 miles to the northeast, remained a British stronghold until the end of the Revolutionary War.
Captured Continentals were held aboard prison ships in New York Harbor and British political activity in the West was anchored in the Big Apple, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
However, that all came crashing down on the crown after the Treaty of Paris was signed, and new "Americans" eagerly saw the British out of their hard-won home on Nov. 25, 1783.
In their haste to flee the U.S., the British took time to grease flagpoles that still flew the Union Jack. One prominent post was at Bennett Park – on present-day West 183 Street near the northern tip of Manhattan.
Undeterred, Sgt. John van Arsdale, a Revolution veteran, cobbled together cleats that allowed him to climb the slick pole and tear down the then-enemy flag. Van Arsdale replaced it with the Stars and Stripes – and without today's skyscrapers in the way, the change of colors at the island's highest point could be seen farther downtown.
In the harbor, a final blast from a British warship aimed for Staten Island, but missed a crowd that had assembled to watch the 6,000-man military begin its journey back across the Atlantic to King George III.
Later that day, future President George Washington and New York Gov. George Clinton – who had negotiated "evacuation" with England's Canadian Gov. Sir Guy Carleton – led a military march down Broadway through throngs of revelers to what would today be the Wall Street financial district at the other end of Manhattan.
Clinton hosted Washington for dinner and a "Farewell Toast" at nearby Fraunces' Tavern, which houses a museum dedicated to the original U.S. holiday. Samuel Fraunces, who owned the watering hole, provided food and reportedly intelligence to the Continental Army.
Washington convened at Fraunces' just over a week later to announce his leave from the Army, surrounded by Clinton and other top Revolutionary figures like German-born Gen. Friedrich von Steuben – whom New York's Oktoberfest-styled parade officially honors.
"With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable," Washington said.
Before Lincoln – and later Congress – normalized Thanksgiving as the mass family affair it has become, Evacuation Day was more prominent than both its successor and Independence Day, according to several sources, including Untapped New York.
Nov. 25 was a school holiday in the 19th century and people re-created van Arsdale's climb up the Bennett Park flagpole. Formal dinners were held at the Plaza Hotel and other upscale institutions for many years, according to the outlet.
An official parade reminiscent of today's Macy's Thanksgiving Parade was held every year in New York until the 1910s.
As diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom warmed heading into the 20th century and the U.S. alliance with London during the World Wars proved crucial, celebrating Evacuation Day became less and less prominent.
Into the 2010s, however, commemorative flag-raisings have been sporadically held at Bowling Green, the southern endpoint of Broadway. On the original Evacuation Day, Washington's dinner at Fraunces Tavern was preceded by the new U.S. Army marching down the iconic avenue to formally take back New York.
Thirteen toasts – marking the number of United States – were raised at Fraunces, each one spelling out the new government's hope for the new nation or giving thanks to those who helped it come to be.
An aide to Washington wrote them down for posterity, and the Sons of the American Revolution recite them at an annual dinner, according to the tavern's museum site.
"To the United States of America," the first toast went. The second honored King Louis XVI, whose French Army was crucial in America's victory.
"To the vindicators of the rights of mankind in every quarter of the globe," read another. "May a close union of the states guard the temple they have erected to liberty."
The 13th offered a warning to any other country that might ever seek to invade the new U.S.:
"May the remembrance of this day be a lesson to princes."
Controversial "squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has explained where she thinks the Democratic presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., went wrong.
According to Omar, the campaign's choice to embrace the endorsements of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was "a huge misstep."
This was especially true in battleground state Michigan, she told the Minnesota Star-Tribune, because it was where the Uncommitted Movement maintained a stronghold.
The Uncommitted Movement specifically withheld support from President Joe Biden — and then Harris — because of its disapproval of their handling of the war in Gaza. Particularly, a large population of Arabs and Muslims in Michigan believed the U.S. was not holding Israel accountable for death and destruction in Gaza.
"You have the one name for my generation and generations younger than me that is synonymous with war," Omar said of Cheney.
"It does say something about where your priorities are, even if those are not your priorities."
As part of the Harris-Walz campaign's strategy to attract disaffected Republicans, they advertised former Rep. Cheney's endorsement and even hosted an event with her and Harris in battleground state Wisconsin.
She also explained why she thought Harris lost the city of Dearborn, Michigan, which is home to a large Arab community. The congresswoman pointed to the fact that President-elect Donald Trump met with the Democratic mayor, but Harris and Walz were only willing to send staff.
"I think that personal touch for that community made the difference," Omar said. "We could have had that personal touch."
Despite her past record of criticism of and opposition to Trump, Omar claimed she'd be open to collaborating with his administration. She maintained that she would still be opposing "hurtful" policies towards her constituents, though.
With Trump returning to office, Omar said she is afraid that Israel will get the "green light" to "finish their genocidal war."
The Harris-Walz team did not provide comment in time for publication.
