Trump wants Israel to cancel ceasefire if hostages aren't freed by Saturday | The Excerpt
On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Hamas says it will stop releasing hostages, while accusing Israel of ceasefire violations. Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement. Paste BN Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen breaks down why a group of states sued over billions in research cuts. Also in the courts, a judge extended the pause on a deadline for federal workers to decide on buyouts. Plus, a judge ruled the Trump White House failed to comply with a court order on frozen federal spending. And - refugee resettlement organizations asked a federal judge Monday to restore the U.S. refugee program. In other White House news, Trump fired the government's top ethics official. And he's announced a plan to stop making new pennies. Paste BN Pentagon Correspondent Tom Vanden Brook digs into the Pentagon's revival of its ban on transgender troops joining the military.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, February 11th, 2025. This is the Excerpt. Today, the latest on tensions that threatened the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, plus states sue the Trump administration over billions in research costs, and the Pentagon is reinstating a ban on transgender troops in the military.
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President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Hamas yesterday saying Israel should cancel its ceasefire with the Palestinian group unless every hostage it holds is released by Saturday at noon.
Donald Trump:
As far as I'm concerned, if all of the hostages aren't returned by Saturday at 12 o'clock, I think it's an appropriate time, I would say cancel it, and all bets are off and let hell break out.
Taylor Wilson:
The President did not specify what actions he might take, saying only that Hamas would find out what he means. Hamas yesterday announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement. A spokesperson for Hamas's military wing said that since the ceasefire came into effect on January 19th, Israel had delayed allowing displaced Palestinians from returning to Northern Gaza, targeting Gazans with military shelling and gunfire, and it stopped relief materials entering the territory. Israel's defense minister Israel Katz said that Hamas had violated the ceasefire agreement with its announcement and that he instructed the military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza. So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be released in the first 42-day phase of the deal have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release. Israel has released hundreds of detainees ranging from prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks to Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.
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A group of states is suing the Trump administration over a cap that Department of Health and Human Services set on funding for research overhead. I spoke with Paste BN Justice Department correspondent Bart Jansen for more. Bart, hello, sir.
Bart Jansen:
Hey, how are you?
Taylor Wilson:
Good. Thanks for hopping on this part. So let's just get the details here at the top. What is this lawsuit and really what's that issue here?
Bart Jansen:
Yeah, a group of 22 states got together to sue the Trump administration over a cap on the grant funding that they get for medical research grants from the Department of Health and Human Services through the National Institutes of Health. The complaint is that HHS has set a 15% limit on overhead expenses for these research projects, and that's the kind of funding that would go for lab, space, utilities, even faculty salaries. But the states are saying if you cap the payment that they get for that overhead, that it's going to hurt medical research and could be devastating to cutting edge research on illnesses like Alzheimer's or diabetes.
Taylor Wilson:
Okay. And who are some of the lawmakers or other critics speaking out here, Bart?
Bart Jansen:
An interesting voice that emerged in this is Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine is head of the Appropriations Committee in the Senate. So head of the lawmakers who decide where to spend money each year, and she has several research institutions in Maine, including Jackson Laboratory, the University of Maine, and Maine Medical Center Research Institute. And she said she's hearing from them that if they capped this reimbursement policy, that they'd lose valuable research. She said she personally contacted Robert Kennedy, Trump's nominee to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to say that she was opposed to this policy. She wanted him to take another look at it. He said if he is confirmed, he will take another look at it. But NIH has said that they spent $35 billion last year in these kinds of medical grants, and $9 billion of that went to this overhead. They thought that's just too much. And the administration's goal is by capping it at 15% to save $4 billion over the next year.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as for the Trump administration, Bart, have we heard from them at all after this lawsuit? Any of the usual talking points, anything different? What are we hearing from them?
Bart Jansen:
They didn't comment on the lawsuit because it is ongoing litigation, but this is a piece of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency searching for ways to cut trillions of dollars in federal spending. This is just one piece of the pie. The problem is that the people that conduct the research say that it would really eat into the kinds of answers that we get on serious health issues.
Taylor Wilson:
And following these moves, Bart, a judge yesterday temporarily blocked the research funding cut. So we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. Bart Jansen covers the Justice Department for Paste BN. Thank you, Bart.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
We saw a slew of other developments yesterday involving the Trump administration and the courts. A judge extended the pause on Trump's deadline for federal employees to accept a controversial buyout after labor unions challenged the plan's legality. Separately, a judge said yesterday Trump's administration violated a court order lifting a broad freeze on federal spending and directed the government to immediately release any withheld funds. The ruling appeared to be the first instance of a judge finding the Trump administration had violated a court order, pausing a new policy rollout. The administration said it is appealing. And in a lawsuit in US district court in Washington state, several US refugee resettlement organizations asked a federal judge to restore the US refugee program arguing President Trump's indefinite suspension is unlawful and is causing irreparable harm.
In other White House news, Trump is removing the federal government's top ethics official. The Office of Government Ethics negotiates with cabinet nominees on their ethics agreements so that they can abide by conflict of interest laws. It also collects financial disclosures from thousands of federal government employees. David Udama, a lawyer who previously worked in the State Department, was confirmed to a five-year term in December during the final days of Joe Biden's presidency. Meanwhile, the US has changed the name Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Following one of Trump's early executive orders, Google has followed suit by updating its maps and Trump announced over the weekend that he is telling the Treasury Department to stop minting pennies ending a 233-year run on the one-cent coin. You can read more about all of these developments from the past day or two with links in today's show notes or by heading to usatoday.com.
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The Pentagon is reviving its ban on transgender troops joining the military. I spoke with Paste BN Pentagon correspondent Tom Vanden Brook for more. Tom, thanks for hopping on, sir.
Tom Vanden Brook:
Taylor, good to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
Good to have you as always, Tom. So really what did the Pentagon decide here functionally? What does this mean?
Tom Vanden Brook:
Well, sent a memo last week, arrived in federal court, and it regards the service of transgender troops. And they're saying right now that they will not accept any new transgender troops. And those troops who are serving now will not be eligible to have any kind of medical treatment for their condition, which can be gender dysphoria.
Taylor Wilson:
And Tom, in terms of how many folks this impacts directly, I mean, can you give us a sense of just how many transgender troops there really are in the military?
Tom Vanden Brook:
Yeah, this is all estimates now, Taylor, because nobody has to identify as such. So it's probably somewhere in the range... Estimates by advocacy groups and by the RAND Corporation, somewhere between 10 and 15,000 when you're talking about an active duty force of 1.3 million.
Taylor Wilson:
And I know this has kind of gone back and forth across past administrations. I mean, how did we get to this point now?
Tom Vanden Brook:
Back in 2016, Ash Carter, who was then the defense secretary, lifted what had been a decades long ban on the service of transgender troops, allowing them to serve openly and to ultimately receive treatment if they had gender dysphoria, which is a condition that's recognized by the American Medical Association and other mainstream medical and psychological groups. That policy was rescinded once Donald Trump took office in 2017. He did it famously by tweet. He essentially banned their service. There was some back and forth about what the ban meant, but essentially just kept transgender troops from joining the service. Fast-forward to 2020, one of the first things that Lloyd Austin did when he was defense secretary at the direction of Joe Biden was to rescind the Trump era ban. Now we're back to the latest valley in this, and this is a new ban on accepting new troops and treating those who are in the service now.
Taylor Wilson:
And Tom, this move this week, can you just help us understand how this is really part of a broader push right from Trump and allies to change policies at a Pentagon that he and defense secretary Pete Hegseth have called woke?
Tom Vanden Brook:
Right. This is exactly in line with what Hegseth and Trump have been saying about the military becoming too concerned about social issues such as the service of transgender troops. Hegseth has gone so far as to say in the past, not that long ago, a few months ago, that women should not be serving in combat. So it's of a piece with that, and they're trying to roll back a lot of Obama and Biden era policies regarding the service of women, service of transgender troops, and also what's taught in military academies and that sort of thing.
Taylor Wilson:
And Tom, what are we hearing in terms of pushback after this move?
Tom Vanden Brook:
I reached out to one of the groups that advocates for transgender troops, Sparta Pride, and they said, "Look, if you qualify to serve physically and mentally and you want to do it, you should be able to do it." I mean, that's been kind of the standard, and that's where they stand on it. And also they maintain that any sort of medical treatment that these troops require is no different than, say, a troop who broke a leg. It's just a matter of giving the person the medical care that they need.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. So in terms of what happens next, Tom, what's the sense, I guess, around the permanence of this for the next four years? Is there any recourse in the courts? Where do we go from here?
Tom Vanden Brook:
No doubt there'll be lawsuits that will challenge it, but they have certain leeway when it comes to the Pentagon as far as who serves and what the qualifications are for it. So almost certain to draw a legal challenge. We'll see what happens then. But obviously this issue is not going away.
Taylor Wilson:
Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon for Paste BN. Thank you, Tom.
Tom Vanden Brook:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to the Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for the Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of the Excerpt from Paste BN.