President Donald Trump declined to lay out a timeline on his administration’s planned pause on offers of asylum regarding 19 countries “of concern.” Trump defended the pause — but did not say when he might relax it — while speaking with reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday. The president said that the United States is better off without accepting refugees from the targeted countries. The 19 countries “of concern” included in the asylum pause are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. “We don’t want people. We have enough problems. We don’t want those people,” the president said. “You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.” Asylum claims that will be blocked under the order are from countries that are “not friendly to us and countries that are out of control themselves–countries like Somalia that have virtually no government, no military, no police. All they do is go around killing each other, then they come into our country and tell us how to run our country,” said Trump. The president pointed to the case of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who has long been suspected of committing immigration fraud by marrying her brother. The president suggested that Omar married her brother to illegally immigrate to the United States, and that if the accusation is true, Omar should be thrown “the hell out of our country.” Omar has previously denied those claims. Trump first announced the pause on accepting asylum claims from 19 countries in a pair of posts on Truth Social on Thanksgiving Day. The president added that he plans to investigate and remove foreigners who are not citizens residing in the United States who are not a “net asset” to the country. “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization,” said Trump.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett raved about the holiday sales already underway as he told Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy that Americans had just delivered “the best Black Friday tha we’ve ever seen.” Hassett explained on “Fox & Friends: Weekend” that the end of the government shutdown had likely inspired a boost in consumer confidence as the holidays approached — and argued that wage growth under President Donald Trump compared to during former President Joe Biden’s administration was also likely playing a role in getting consumers through the doors. WATCH: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett: “We just had the best Black Friday that we’ve ever seen… Retailers expect that both online and in-store sales are going to be the highest we’ve ever seen.” pic.twitter.com/zKhSJNXThI — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 30, 2025 “The fact is that we just had the best Black Friday that we’ve ever seen,” Hassett began. “And it’s not just because people are out there, you know, taking debt on their credit cards. It’s because incomes are way up under President Trump. They dropped about $3000 a person, $6000 a family, under Joe Biden and it’s up $1500 a person so far this year.” “And with all that extra money, and with the government shutdown over so that people feel comfortable going back to stores, we’re seeing a really blow-out Thanksgiving and Christmas coming our way,” he continued. “I think all the retailers expect that both online and in-store sales are going to be the highest we’ve ever seen — and the point is that’s happening even though inflation is way, way down under President Trump, you know it was 5-10% under Biden and right now it’s running at about 2.5%, and it’s not — it’s way lower than wage growth, so people’s incomes are going up by way more than inflation and that’s why we’re seeing these blowout sales.” Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday. Hassett delivered the same message on CBS News, pushing back on the narrative that Americans would only be spending more this Christmas because things had gotten more expensive. “I think the folks who were saying, ‘Well, maybe people are going to be anxious about going back and getting presents for the kids and so on,’ they have been disproven this weekend,” he said Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett says Black Friday spending increased this year, although early forecasts indicated that if spending was higher, it would likely be due to higher prices. “I think the folks who were saying, ‘Well, maybe people are going to be anxious… pic.twitter.com/UQev2irJkl — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 30, 2025 RELATED: Make Black Friday Easier — And Less Dangerous — With DW Shop The Official Woke-Free Gift Guide For 2025

Top officials from the United States and Ukraine met in Florida on Sunday to discuss the framework of a possible peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser, met in Miami with Ukraine’s delegation led by Rustem Umerov, the head of head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. “The end goal, obviously, is not just the end of the war, obviously–that’s central and fundamental. We want to see an end of the killing and the death and the suffering, and I’m sure the Ukrainian side, I know they do, as well,” said Rubio in remarks before the meeting. “But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.” Umerov thanked Trump’s negotiation team for their support in brief remarks after Rubio’s. “We are discussing about the future of Ukraine, about the security of Ukraine, about no repetition of aggression of Ukraine, about prosperity of Ukraine, about how to rebuild Ukraine. And we are thankful for the efforts of United States and its team to helping us. U.S. is hearing us, U.S. is supporting us, U.S. is beside us,” said Umerov. The delegations met as the two sides and Russia continue to hammer out revisions to Trump’s original 28-point framework for peace in Ukraine. The starting offer proposed by the United States reportedly received stiff objections from Ukrainian officials over a cap to Ukraine’s military, ceding territory not under Russia’s direct control, and other issues. “The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “The Ukrainian delegation has the necessary directives, and I expect the guys to work in accordance with clear Ukrainian priorities.” Substantial revisions have since been made to initial peace plan, though the specifics have been guarded from the public. Ukraine has sought security guarantees and rejected suggestions of ceding additional land to Russia. Russia has insisted that Ukraine abandon “occupied territories.” Last week, Yuri Ushakov, a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that the Kremlin had received the latest version of the peace framework but declined to offer an opinion on it. “This isn’t an official one, but we do have the document. We haven’t discussed it with anyone yet because the points in it require truly serious analysis and discussion,” said Ushakov, according to CNN.

Democrat Delegate Stacey Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ non-voting member of Congress, garnered headlines recently when it came to light that she took direction from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing. Her relationship with Epstein is especially notable because Plaskett herself had “private nude images” of her stolen by her own ex-staffers, who used them to attempt to sabotage her re-election campaign. The husband of one of the culprits was, like Epstein, later found dead. In March 2016, Plaskett asked staffer Juan R. McCullum to fix her iPhone. After snooping around, McCullum found nude images and videos, including one of her husband naked and wearing makeup while their young child was in the room, according to court papers. Plaskett is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. She has said she had texted with Epstein during a House Oversight Committee hearing because Epstein was providing her information about what to ask President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, because Epstein “had information, and I was going to get information to get at the truth.” After the Epstein revelations emerged, she faced a censure vote in the House, narrowly escaping on a 209-214 vote. In July 2016, after leaving Plaskett’s office to work for Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), McCullum created an email address and sent the photos to politicians and the media, as well as posted them to Facebook using a fake account. Police traced the accounts to McCullum and found that he had communicated with another former Plaskett staffer, Dorene Browne-Louis, who had gone on to work for the Department of Homeland Security. “Somebody will pay for how we were treated,” he wrote to Browne-Louis. Browne-Louis “made numerous false and misleading statements about her knowledge of McCullum’s activities,” and falsely denied deleting relevant text messages, prosecutors said. She later testified before a federal grand jury and provided false statements, including that she “did not know that McCullum wanted to seek revenge against Delegate S.P.,” court papers said. A superseding indictment said Browne-Louis provided McCullum the email address of the governor of the Virgin Islands and political supporters — taken from confidential campaign documents — for the purpose of sending the pictures to him and others. Using his fake email account, McCullum sent Browne-Louis multiple messages “containing derogatory statements about” Plaskett, and Browne-Louis “requested that he re-send her the nude Images and Videos,” the indictment said. Browne-Louis gave one of the images to a campaign staffer for Plaskett’s challenger in the August 6, 2016, Democratic primary election, who in turn gave it to a reporter. In his messages, McCullum “voiced opposition to Delegate S.P. and attempted to use the communications to undermine Delegate S.P.’s re-election campaign.” Both culprits pleaded guilty. In a victim impact statement, Plaskett told the court that “our family’s privacy was invaded, pillaged and we were basically raped by Juan McCullum and Dorene Browne-Louis… Why, because I was mean? I demanded a lot, I demand most of myself.” Plaskett continued, “We got calls from the White House with complaints that McCullum was pretending to be a member of the White House staff, we should have fired him then but I asked him to put his head down and let it blow over.” “I’m so grateful for all the people at home who rallied around me,” she wrote. “The women who saw it for what it was. Bringing a black woman down. McCullum you’re like some creep who rips a woman’s clothes off in public, like the slave seller ripping a black woman’s clothes off.” Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday. “Then you went further. They tried to first emasculate my husband. Say he was not a man, because there was a picture of him with makeup. Makeup it was obvious he was not happy to be wearing. That he lost in a bet. The worst was that they tried to put in the public that my husband and I allowed our daughter who was around 4-5 at the time of the picture in some perverted unnatural situation. For that reason, I want to physically destroy the two of them.” Plaskett’s husband, Jonathan Buckney-Small, wrote in his victim impact statement that he ran into McCullum after finding out about the photos and “NEVER had I felt the pulse the beat the flow my blood asking me to take matters in my own hands that night when you couldn’t look me in the eye. It was then it was clear I had a decision I had to make do I go to jail to make myself feel better or do I let time take you do [sic] jail.” In March 2018, McCullum was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, 100 hours of community service, and two years of probation. In June 2020, a judge agreed to terminate his probation early. In August 2016, a month after the photos and video were published, Browne-Louis’s husband, Gregory Benson Louis, was shot and killed outside the firehouse where he worked. Browne-Louis also pleaded guilty. The government did not seek jail time in part because her husband was murdered. She was sentenced to two years’ probation.

ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl spent part of Sunday morning’s broadcast of “This Week” talking about a Washington Post hit piece attacking War Secretary Pete Hegseth. The story in question alleged that Hegseth had ordered a second strike on a boat full of narco-terrorists when the first had left two survivors. Hegseth responded to the story in a lengthy post on X, saying in part, “As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland. As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.” But when Karl raised the issue on Sunday morning, he opted to speak instead with ABC’s global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, who has reported extensively on the military but has never served herself. WATCH: “Did those two men clinging to the side of the boat pose an imminent threat?”@MarthaRaddatz weighs in on the Washington Post reporting of a military strike that allegedly targeted two survivors in the Caribbean. https://t.co/qh5zs8hdWr pic.twitter.com/alnukF1hlq — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 30, 2025 Raddatz cited The Washington Post report and said that the second strike — executed when the two survivors were apparently clinging to the wreckage of the destroyed boat — had been ordered based on verbal instruction from Hegseth himself to “kill everybody.” “Did those two men clinging to the side of the boat pose an imminent threat?” she asked, going on to wonder whether the order to strike a second time had been given with the knowledge that survivors were hanging on for dear life, and whether the lawyers had been consulted about the legality of such a strike. The conversation focused on the idea that attacking when there was no “imminent threat” would be a violation of the “rules of war.” But as Marine Corps veteran and Fox News personality Joey Jones said on “The Big Weekend Show,” an “imminent threat” does not always have to come in the form of guns pointed at American citizens. WATCH: ? Joey Jones just ended the left with one quote: “Spare me the tears over terrorists when you don’t cry over Americans who’ve died from them. Spare me the tears over terrorists when you didn’t have anything to say when President Obama droned American citizens.” ??? pic.twitter.com/6ISsgZkWzD — Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) November 29, 2025 Jones noted that if the survivors were able to radio others in their drug trafficking network, that could be just as grave a threat — and could also quickly result in men with guns showing up to defend them.