DAVID MARCUS: From borders to bombs, 5 times Trump defied experts in Year 1
Donald Trump’s second first year in the presidency will go down in history as one of the most eventful in our nation’s first 250 years, largely because time and again he made experts who doubted his methods look like fools.
For decades, at least since the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we have seen presidents as caretakers of our democracy, not as drivers of it, but Trump, seeing the caustic caution of a Congress which couldn’t pass a bill to decide where to have lunch, has acted.
These actions have paid dividends, loath though the legacy media is to admit it, and they are reasons to be excited about what his next three years may hold.
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I’ll give you five examples where the experts said Trump was out of his mind, but, in reality, it all worked out fine.
1. Closing the Border
Prior to Trump taking office, Democrats had assured the American people that the border could not be closed without congressional action, and the experts gravely agreed.
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“A president doesn’t have the unilateral authority to shut down the border,” insisted Alberto Benitez, director of the Immigration Clinic at George Washington University Law School, in 2024, for example.
That has simply, and objectively turned out to be false. According to Customs and Border Protection, there have been seven straight months of zero illegal immigrants being released into the country, not 1,000, not 100, but zero.
The border is shut. It’s actually incredible, but too often when an incredible thing happens we just accept it as the norm, as if it’s always been. No. Trump made that happen.
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2. Tariffs
On “Liberation Day,” as Trump dubbed it, in the spring of last year, tariffs went through the roof on almost every nation and the stock market tanked immediately, with pundits predicting the president’s approval ratings would tank just as quickly.
On every TV network and in every serious financial journal we were told that soon stock brokers would be selling apples on the street corner from carts in black-and-white photographs.
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“This is a disaster, and anyone who says otherwise is lying,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee posted on X, back then.
In fact, Trump’s “yuge” tariffs were an opening position, and about four gazillion trade deals have been accomplished as a result. Like those deals or not, the stock market today is at record highs, and everyone on Wall Street is still in color.
3. Bombing Iran
Critics of Trump, from both the left and the right, warned that if he were to attack Iran, it could unleash unrest in the Middle East and perhaps even World War III!
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Ryan Crocker, a distinguished chair in diplomacy and security at RAND, said prior to the strike, “…it is unlikely that air power alone will eliminate Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons,” adding, “Perhaps the U.S. force would persuade Iran to agree to such restrictions. If not, it will broaden the conflict and deepen Iranian determination to acquire nuclear weapons, whatever the cost.”
Once again, Trump was right and the experts were wrong.
What actually happened was that the U.S. military, under the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, neutralized that very nuclear program that Barack Obama and his buddies wanted to contain through appeasement.
Now, Iran’s murderous regime is on the brink of destruction because Trump refused to listen to the experts.
4. Crime in Washington, D.C.
The murder rate in Washington, D.C. dropped 40% last year, second only to Denver at 41%. For almost half of that year, President Trump had the National Guard deployed to protect the city and its citizens.
But what did the experts say at the time about the use of the National Guard?
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David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, had this to say, “When communities don’t feel they’re being policed properly, they stop helping. It’s very common for what’s seen as illegitimate policing to result in spikes of violence. And I’m very concerned about that in this instance.”
The experts insisted that the Guard wasn’t even in the areas where most crime occurred, but Trump who witnessed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s miraculous anti-crime transformation of Gotham in the 1990s knew better.
According to The Trace, improvement was immediate, “From August 11 to October 11 — the first two months of Trump’s takeover — 41 people were shot in Washington, 10 of them fatally. That’s a 62 percent drop in the number of shootings over the same period last year.”
The Trump administration’s broken-windows policing is working. And everybody knows it.
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5. The Cabinet
Whether it was Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sean Duffy, or Pam Bondi, almost all of Trump’s cabinet picks, save maybe Marco Rubio, because everyone likes Rubio, were viewed by critics on the left as sycophantic wannabes who had no business in their roles.
Jonathan Hanson, a political scientist and lecturer in statistics at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, said a year ago, “We’re in untested waters,” going on to say, “It’s true that people’s standards have shifted, but the question is, when does it really cross a line?”
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In practice, Trump’s Cabinet has been one of the most effective and cohesive cabinets in modern history and has delivered on several successes for the president, as listed above. Not only that, but televised, hours-long, cabinet meetings have kept Americans quite informed about what they are actually doing.
The expert class demanded that those of their own fill these coveted slots and basically make sure that nothing changes very much, even if they use big words to pretend it will.
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That’s not how Trump rolls, at least not in his second term.
The American people must hope that the Trump administration continues to confound the expert class, and the Davos conglomerates of too skinny billionaires.
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The experts are on tap for Trump as they should be, but they are not on top. Instead, on top are the interests of America, and time and again, on that score, he always seems to prove the experts wrong.
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Pentagon plans to give South Korea primary role in deterring North Korea threats under new strategy
The Pentagon said in an unclassified national defense strategy document titled “Restoring peace through strength for a new golden age of America” on Friday that it plans to shift more of the responsibility of deterring North Korea to South Korea.
The U.S. would take a “more limited” role in keeping North Korea in line, the Pentagon said in the document obtained by Fox News Digital.
“With its powerful military, supported by high defense spending, a robust defense industry, and mandatory conscription, South Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited U.S. support,” the document said.
It added, “South Korea also has the will to do so, given that it faces a direct and clear threat from North Korea. This shift in the balance of responsibility is consistent with America’s interest in updating U.S. force posture on the Korean Peninsula. In this way, we can ensure a stronger and more mutually beneficial alliance relationship that is better aligned with America’s defense priorities, thereby setting conditions for lasting peace.”
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The new policy plan on North Korea followed similar strategies for other parts of the world, with the wide-ranging document adding that the department will “no longer be distracted by interventionism, endless wars, regime change, and nation building. Instead, we will put our people’s practical concrete interests first.”
The document clarified the policy doesn’t mean “isolationism,” but rather a “strategic approach to the threats our nation faces.”
Further down, it added, “We will insist our allies and partners do their part and lend them a helping hand when they step up.”
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The document said under a section titled “Increase Burden-Sharing with U.S. Allies and Partners” that it plans to deter China “through strength, not confrontation,” and as the “Department rightly prioritizes Homeland defense and deterring China, other threats will persist, and our allies will be essential to dealing with all of them. Our allies will do so not as a favor to us, but out of their own interests.”
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On Russia, it said the country “will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO’s eastern members for the foreseeable future,” and on Iran, it stated that President Donald Trump has made it clear that Iran won’t be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
This year, South Korea raised its military budget by 7.5% while around 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed there in defense of North Korea.
Chaos in Syria sparks fears of ISIS prison breaks as US rushes detainees to Iraq
Chaos engulfing northeastern Syria has sparked fresh security fears after Syria’s new governing authorities moved against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, forcing the U.S. military to rush ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraq.
The U.S. military launched an operation Wednesday to relocate ISIS detainees amid fears that instability could trigger mass prison breaks. So far, about 150 detainees have been transferred from a detention center in Hasakah, Syria, with plans to move up to 7,000 of the roughly 9,000 to 10,000 ISIS detainees held in Syria, U.S. officials said.
The operation comes as Syria’s new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, ordered the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — Washington’s longtime partner in the fight against ISIS — to disband following a rapid offensive over the weekend that severely weakened the group.
Syrian government forces have since assumed control of several detention facilities previously guarded by the SDF. At least 120 ISIS detainees escaped during a breakout at the al-Shaddadi prison in Hasakah this week, according to Syrian authorities, who say many have been recaptured. U.S. and regional officials caution that some escapees remain at large.
The deteriorating security situation also has raised alarms around al-Hol camp, a sprawling detention site housing the families of ISIS fighters and long viewed by Western officials as a breeding ground for radicalization.
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Kurdish forces announced they would withdraw from overseeing the camp, citing what they described as international indifference to the ISIS threat.
“Due to the international community’s indifference towards the ISIS issue and its failure to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter, our forces were compelled to withdraw from al-Hol camp and redeploy,” the SDF said in a statement.
The camp is currently home to about 24,000 people, mostly women and children linked to ISIS fighters from across the Middle East and Europe. Many residents have no formal charges, according to aid groups, and humanitarian organizations have long warned that extremist networks operate inside the camp.
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The SDF said guards were redeployed to confront the threat posed by Syrian government forces advancing into Kurdish-held territory. On Tuesday evening, Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops agreed to a four-day ceasefire, though officials warned the truce remains fragile.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials are weighing whether to withdraw the roughly 1,000 American troops still stationed in Syria, raising questions about Washington’s long-term ability to secure ISIS detainees as local alliances shift.
Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed in Syria in December 2025 by a lone ISIS gunman.
ISIS lost its last territorial stronghold in Syria in 2019, when U.S. forces and their SDF partners overran the group’s enclave in Baghouz. While the defeat ended the group’s self-declared caliphate, U.S. and allied officials say ISIS has since regrouped as a decentralized insurgency, repeatedly targeting prisons and detention camps in Syria and Iraq.
Western governments have cautiously backed al-Sharaa — a former militant once designated as a terrorist — since his forces overthrew longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, framing the support as a pragmatic security calculation rather than an endorsement of his past.
U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack urged Kurdish leaders to reach a permanent deal with the new Syrian government, emphasizing Washington’s focus on preventing an ISIS resurgence rather than maintaining an indefinite military presence.
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“The United States has no interest in a long-term military presence,” Barrack said, adding that U.S. priorities include securing ISIS detention facilities and facilitating talks between the SDF and the Syrian government.
Russia, Ukraine to discuss territory as Trump says both sides ‘want to make a deal’
The U.S., Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss one of the major sticking points stopping a deal to end the nearly four-year war: territorial disputes. The talks in Abu Dhabi are the first trilateral talks since 2022.
The trilateral sit-down comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump in Davos and Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s meeting with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Witkoff and Kushner traveled to the UAE for the talks after their meeting with Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
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Zelenskyy and Putin are under increasing pressure to reach a peace deal as the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches and President Donald Trump pushes to end the war.
While Russia has demanded Ukraine cede the Donbas, Zelenskyy has stood firm in his opposition to making land concessions, though the discussions in Abu Dhabi suggest that he could be ready to negotiate. Putin is demanding Ukraine surrender the 20% it holds of the Donetsk region of the Donbas, according to Reuters.
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“The question of Donbas is key. It will be discussed how the three sides… see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” Zelenskyy told reporters via WhatsApp, according to Reuters. The outlet added that an aide for Zelenskyy said the talks are expected to continue Saturday.
The envoys are meeting as Ukrainians face below-freezing temperatures after Russian strikes damaged the country’s power supply.
Maxim Timchenko, the head of Ukraine’s top private power producer, told Reuters that the situation was nearing a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
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While speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Trump was asked if the trilateral meeting could lead to one with himself, Putin and Zelenskyy. He would not commit but said that “any time we meet, it’s good.” He also expressed doubts about whether Putin wanted to take over all of Ukraine.
“What’s happened here is there were times when Putin didn’t want to make a deal, times when Zelenskyy didn’t want to make a deal, and it was opposite times. Now, I think they both want to make a deal. We’ll find out,” Trump said.
The president also acknowledged that the topics of the discussions that were happening had been debated for months.
Iran’s top prosecutor criticizes Trump’s announcement that 800+ executions were halted: ‘Completely false’
Iran’s top prosecutor pushed back Friday on a recent announcement from President Donald Trump that Iran canceled more than 800 executions, alleging that the president’s remarks are “completely false.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social last week, “I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!”
However, Iran’s top prosecutor, Mohammad Movahedi, said Friday that, “This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,” according to The Associated Press.
“We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers,” Movahedi reportedly added in comments published by the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency.
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When asked for reaction Friday, a White House official told Fox News Digital that Trump is monitoring the situation in Iran very seriously and that all options remain available if the regime in Tehran executes protesters.
The official added that following Trump’s warnings to Iran, demonstrators who were set to be sentenced to death there were not.
The White House official also said Trump believes this is good news and is hoping the trend continues.
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“What I will say with respect to Iran is that the president and his team have communicated to the Iranian regime that if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.
As of Friday, there have been 5,032 deaths during the crackdown against anti-government protesters in Iran, the AP reported, citing the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
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Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people had been killed. It claimed that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being “terrorists.”
Trump threatens Iran with crushing response as Tehran denies halting protest executions
Iran’s top prosecutor Thursday denied President Donald Trump’s claim that Tehran, Iran, halted mass executions of imprisoned protesters under U.S. pressure — a rebuttal that comes as Trump openly warned Iran it would face consequences more severe than recent U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities if the executions went forward.
Trump has said he pulled back from threats to intervene militarily after Iran agreed to stop the execution of as many as 800 detained demonstrators following days of anti-regime unrest.
“This claim is completely false, no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,” Mohammad Movahedi was quoted by Iranian state media as saying Friday.
“We have a separation of powers, the responsibilities of each institution are clearly defined, and we do not, under any circumstances, take instructions from foreign powers,” he added.
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Movahedi is an Iranian cleric and judge who serves as the nation’s prosecutor general. He previously warned that those taking part in the protests were “enemies of God,” a crime punishable by death.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the discrepancy between Trump and Movahedi’s claims. Fox News Digital also reached out to the State Department for more details and has not yet received a response.
A White House official said Trump “is watching the situation in Iran very seriously and all options are on the table if the regime executes protesters.”
The official declined to say where Trump had learned executions were being halted but added: “As a result of President Trump’s warnings, Iranian protesters who were scheduled to be sentenced to death were not. As President Trump stated, he thinks this is good news and hopes this trend continues.”
The denial reopens questions raised in the past week, when Trump publicly warned Iran and encouraged protesters by saying “help is on its way,” setting expectations of U.S. action as security forces carried out a violent crackdown. U.S. and regional security officials said at the time that restraint reflected concern over retaliation against U.S. forces and allies — not a retreat from confrontation.
Trump has since argued that pressure worked, saying Iran backed away from planned executions after he warned of severe consequences. Iran’s rejection of that claim now sharpens the stakes, raising the prospect that Washington may soon face a test of whether it is prepared to act if executions resume — or risk its warnings being dismissed.
Trump on Thursday told reporters that a U.S. “armada” was heading toward Iran, signaling that Washington is prepared to escalate if the country continues executions or intensifies its crackdown.
Recalling a conversation with Iranian envoys, Trump said: “I said, if you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit.”
“It will make what we did to Iran nuclear look like peanuts,” he said. “And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled. And they actually said they canceled and they didn’t postpone it they canceled it. So that was a good sign.”
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“We have an armada heading in that direction. And maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said. “We’ll see,”
The president said the U.S. has “a big force going to Iran,” adding, “I’d rather not see anything happen,” but warning that “we have a lot of ships going that direction just in case.”
The Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group set sail from the South China Sea toward the Middle East in the past week and is expected to arrive in the region soon, placing significant U.S. firepower within striking distance of Iran amid rising tensions. The Lincoln carries F-35C stealth fighters, F/A-18 Super Hornets and destroyer escorts armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and advanced air-defense systems.
The deployment has renewed questions over whether the United States is prepared to intervene militarily if Iran resumes executions or continues its crackdown on protesters, which already has left thousands dead.
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Iranian state television has acknowledged that more than 3,000 people have been killed during the unrest, while activists and human rights groups say the true death toll is significantly higher — a discrepancy that underscores the regime’s tight control over information as international scrutiny intensifies.
By publicly tying U.S. military action to the fate of detained protesters, Trump has drawn a clear red line. Iran’s refusal to acknowledge U.S. pressure, even as American naval forces move closer, leaves little room for ambiguity — and raises the risk of escalation as both sides test each other’s resolve.
Russian oil tanker, the Grinch, intercepted as US, allies escalate sanctions crackdown
The French navy intercepted a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of operating as part of Moscow’s shadow fleet, a network of falsely-flagged vessels used to export oil and avoid Western sanctions, according to reports.
President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that French forces had boarded and searched the tanker, which is subject to international sanctions.
The ship was reportedly sailing from Murmansk, in northern Russia, under the Comoros flag.
Writing on X, Macron said the operation took place on the high seas in the Mediterranean with the support of several allied countries.
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The French president added that the vessel had been diverted for further checks.
The tanker, identified as the Grinch, was intercepted between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morocco in the western Mediterranean, French maritime police said.
The Associated Press reported the interception.
France and the U.K. gathered and shared intelligence on the vessel, according to French military officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
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The interception is the latest in a growing number of Russian-linked vessels stopped by U.S. and European authorities in recent months as Western powers intensify efforts to disrupt Russia’s oil exports.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, in early January, U.S. forces seized another sanctioned tanker in the Atlantic Ocean.
U.S. European Command (EUCOM) announced the seizure of the Russian-flagged Marinera oil tanker in the North Atlantic Sea.
France’s Mediterranean Maritime Prefecture said the team that boarded the Grinch Thursday had inspected the vessel and decided documents raised doubts about the regularity of the vessel’s flag.
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The tanker is being escorted by the French navy to an anchorage for additional verification.
The European Union has imposed 19 rounds of sanctions on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Despite those measures, Russia has continued to export millions of barrels of oil, mainly to China and India and often at discounted prices.
What has become known as a “shadow fleet” consists of hundreds of old and poorly regulated tankers that change names, ownership structures and flags to avoid detection and sanctions.
Maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence estimates the global shadow fleet at about 1,400 tankers, many of which are subject to U.S., British or European sanctions, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized European countries for not doing more to stop the transport of Russian oil using sanctioned vessels and which he says helps fund the war in Ukraine.
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“Why can [U.S. President Donald Trump] stop tankers of the ‘shadow fleet’ and seize their oil, while Europe can’t?” Zelensky asked at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday.
“Russian oil is transported right along the European coast. This oil funds the war against Ukraine. This oil helps destabilize Europe.”