President Donald Trump said if Hamas does not return all hostages by noon on Saturday, he will call for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to be canceled and ‘let all hell break out.’ 

Trump made the comments after signing executive orders in the Oval Office Monday evening. 

When asked if he felt the ceasefire deal should be canceled, the president said that is ‘Israel’s decision.’ 

‘If all the Gaza hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 p.m., I would say cancel the ceasefire,’ Trump said in the Oval Office. ‘Let all hell break out; Israel can override it.’ 

Trump stressed that Hamas needs to release ‘all of them—not in drips and drabs.’ 

‘Saturday at 12pm and after that, I would say, all hell is going to break loose,’ Trump said.  

A Hamas spokesperson said Monday that the terrorist group will delay the next planned release of hostages in the Gaza Strip after accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement.

‘Over the past three weeks, the resistance leadership has monitored the enemy’s violations and failure to fulfill its obligations under the agreement; including the delay in allowing the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, targeting them with direct shelling and gunfire in various areas across Gaza, and denying relief supplies of all kinds to enter as agreed, while the resistance has implemented all its obligations,’ Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, said. 

‘Therefore, the release of the Zionist prisoners next Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and provides compensation for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively,’ he said. ‘We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement, as long as the occupation remains committed to them.’

Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire, during which Hamas has committed to releasing 33 hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

The sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire went into effect last month, freeing 21 hostages and more than 730 Palestinian prisoners. The next exchange, scheduled for next Saturday, calls for three more Israeli hostages to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

‘Hamas’ announcement to stop the release of Israeli hostages is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement and the hostage release deal,’ Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday. ‘I have instructed the [Israeli Defense Forces] IDF to maintain the highest level of readiness for any possible scenario in Gaza and to fortify the defense of Israeli communities. We will not allow a return to the reality of Oct. 7.’

Hamas released three gaunt, frail-looking Israeli hostages – civilians Eli Sharabi, 52; Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 – on Saturday after forcing them to speak at a handover ceremony. Israel in turn freed 183 Palestinian prisoners that day. 

On Sunday, Trump commented on the conditions of the released Israeli hostages, saying they ‘looked like Holocaust survivors’ and ‘like they haven’t had a meal in a month.’

‘I don’t know how much longer we can take that,’ Trump said, referring to the treatment of the hostages, adding, ‘You know, at some point, we’re gonna lose our patience.’

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace, Yonat Friling and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, cleared her last procedural hurdle on Monday evening, paving the way for a final confirmation vote later this week. 

The motion passed by a vote of 52-46, along party lines. 

At one time considered perhaps the most vulnerable of Trump’s picks, the former Democratic congresswoman got past another key vote, defeating the legislative filibuster’s threshold on nominations.

The Monday vote’s outcome was much more certain than that of her Senate Select Committee on Intelligence vote last week, which depended on a handful of senators who had potentially lingering concerns. 

But Republicans signaled confidence in her confirmation in the full Senate, evidenced by their slating it while Vice President JD Vance is in Europe representing the U.S. at events and meetings, and is not around to break a tie in the upper chamber. Vance notably had to break a tie to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. 

The vote teed up a final confirmation vote on Wednesday, as Democrats are expected to use all 30 hours of post-cloture time to debate, rather than reaching a time agreement with Republicans to expedite it. 

Gabbard advanced out of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week, snagging the support of crucial GOP Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Todd Young, R-Ind.

In a final vote, Gabbard can only lose 3 Republican votes, assuming she does not get any Democratic support, as was the case in the committee vote. 

Gabbard already has an advantage over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as Collins supports her. The senator was notably one of three votes against Hegseth. 

Democratic lawmakers are fuming over the ‘DOGE boys’ and their recent crackdown on federal spending, holding a rally outside the newly formed cost-cutting department’s potential next target: the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has been working with federal agencies to identify and cut wasteful spending. Most recently, the group began probing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for potential fraud — a move that wasn’t welcomed by Democratic lawmakers who warned that the SSA could be the next agency on the target list.

On Monday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Ma., Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Ma., and Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Ma., gathered for a rally outside the SSA headquarters in Baltimore to criticize DOGE’s efforts.

‘Every time you hear DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, you just remember it is the department of government evil,’ said Mfume, a Maryland-based Democrat.

Fox News Digital previously reported that according to Just Facts, a nonprofit research institute, SSA disbursed roughly $2 billion in fraudulent or improper payments in 2022, which it calculated was enough ‘to pay 89,947 retired workers the average annual old-age benefit of $21,924 for 2023.’

Democrats, however, have claimed that Americans’ Social Security benefits could be targeted. 

‘We have one simple message, which is: Elon Musk, keep your hands off our Social Security,’ Van Hollen told the crowd. 

‘Over the last 21 days, we have seen Elon Musk conducting illegal raids on federal agencies with his DOGE crew,’ the senator said. ‘This is a recipe for corruption by the DOGE boys.’

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Ma., speaking during the rally, claimed that ‘the intention of this administration is to make us feel demoralized, to make many of us feel frightened, to incite fear, to silence people.’

Many of DOGE’s targets have ranged from canceling a number of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at federal agencies to consolidating duplicative agencies and programs.

DOGE, as of the end of January, said that it was saving the federal government $1 billion a day, mostly by ‘stopping the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, deletion of DEI and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations, all consistent with the President’s Executive Orders.’

The efforts have been widely rejected by Democratic lawmakers, who have been gathering outside government agency headquarters in protest of the DOGE agenda.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller and Eric Revell contributed to this report.

Judges across the country have taken action to block President Donald Trump’s agenda since he took office in January. Vice President JD Vance triggered a social media frenzy on Sunday by affirming his support for Trump’s executive authority. 

‘If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,’ Vance posted on X. ‘If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.’

Vance’s comments followed a ruling that blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal data. Judges in New Hampshire, Seattle and Maryland have blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. New York Attorney General Leitita James advised hospitals to ignore Trump’s executive order ending sex change procedures for minors. 

Democrats were quick to lash out at Vance on social media on Sunday, equating his comments to ‘tyranny’ and ‘lawlessness.’ Illinois Gov. JV Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said Vance’s comments mean ‘the Trump administration intends to break the law.’

‘JD Vance is saying the quiet part out loud: the Trump administration intends to break the law. America is a nation of laws. The courts make sure we follow the laws. The VP doesn’t control the courts, and the President cannot ignore the Constitution. No one is above the law,’ Pritzker said.

Pete Buttigieg, former Transportation secretary and a 2020 presidential candidate, said the vice president does not decide what is legal. 

‘In America, decisions about what is legal and illegal are made by courts of law. Not by the Vice President,’ Buttigieg said. 

Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman who led the Jan. 6 Select Committee and campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris, accused Vance of tyranny. 

David Hogg, the first Gen Z vice chair of the Democratic Party, said Vance’s comments are a power grab by the executive branch.

‘He’s saying this to normalize a power grab by the executive to consolidate the power of the president and make him a king,’ Hogg said. ‘If liberals ever said this, conservatives would (rightfully) lose their godd— minds.’

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy called Vance’s comments the ‘meat’ of the current ‘constitutional crisis.’

‘For those of us who believe we are in the middle of a constitutional crisis, this is the meat of it,’ Murphy said on X. ‘Trump and Vance are laying the groundwork to ignore the courts – democracy’s last line of defense against unchecked executive power.’

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the first-term senator whom Trump nicknamed ‘Schifty Schiff’ on the campaign trail, said Vance’s comment ‘puts us on a dangerous path to lawlessness.’

‘JD, we both went to law school. But we don’t have to be lawyers to know that ignoring court decisions we don’t like puts us on a dangerous path to lawlessness. We just have to swear an oath to the constitution. And mean it,’ Sen. Adam Schiff, D-CA, responded. 

Some conservatives fired back at the onslaught of comments. Columnist Kurt Schlichter jumped into the conversation, implying Schiff is a bad lawyer. 

Jed Rubenfeld, a Yale Law School professor, lawyer and constitutional scholar, said he agreed with Vance that judges cannot ‘constitutionally interfere.’

‘JD is correct about this, and his examples are exactly right,’ Rubenfeld said. ‘Where the Executive has sole and plenary power under the Constitution – as in commanding military operations or exercising prosecutorial discretion – judges cannot constitutionally interfere.’

More X users, who joined the debate, said Vance and his supporters’ comments are ironic. AJ Delgado, a self-described ‘MAGA original but now proudly anti-Trump,’ said those attacking Vance lacked principle. 

‘Weren’t you all cheering when a federal judge halted Biden’s student loan forgiveness? You have ZERO principles,’ she wrote on X. 

When the Supreme Court ruled against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, he did not waver in his commitment to relieving student debt, vowing ‘to keep going’ despite the court’s order. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a February 2024 episode of ‘Pod Save America,’ gave credit to Biden for finding alternative ways to alleviate student loan debt.

‘Whatever tools he’s got, he’s sharpening and building some new tools through his Department of Education. We are now at about just a little shy of 4 million people who have had their student loan debt canceled. Joe Biden is just staying after it,’ Warren said.