The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | February 11th, 2025: Trump Threatens ‘All Hell Will Break Loose’ In Gaza & U.S. Starts Venezuela Deportations
Tue, 11 Feb 2025
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: President Trump issues a major ultimatum to Hamas, warning that if hostages aren’t released by Saturday, “all bets are off” and “hell” will break loose. Venezuela, a longtime U.S. adversary, agrees to its first deportation flights, sending nearly 200 Venezuelans back home. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is President Trump's ultimatum to Hamas?
Well, start things off today with President Trump issuing a serious, significant ultimatum, I guess is there any other kind of ultimatum, to Hamas, warning that if hostages aren't released by Saturday, all bets are off and quote, hell will break loose. Later in the show, a big win for the White House.
Venezuela, obviously a longtime adversary of the U.S., has accepted its first deportation flights, sending nearly 200 Venezuelans back home. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. President Trump is drawing a hard line with Hamas, issuing an ultimatum after the group suspended its planned hostage release.
Chapter 2: How has Venezuela's deportation agreement with the U.S. progressed?
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said, "...as far as I'm concerned, if all 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."
Now, when asked for specifics on what exactly he meant by, quote, hell, the president kept it vague, saying only that Hamas, quote, will find out what I mean. Now, Hamas, unsurprisingly, wasn't thrilled with the remarks.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's threat for Hamas and Israel?
A spokesman for the terror group, oh, they've got a spokesman, Sami Abu Zuri, told AFP that Trump should remember that there's a ceasefire agreement in place and that threats, quote, have no value and only, quote, complicate matters.
Apparently, Sammy the Terrorist has forgotten that this whole tragic mess started with Hamas swattering over a thousand Israelis and taking 251 women, children, babies, and men hostage. Now, that is frankly what complicates matters. Now, as we reported yesterday, Hamas halted its upcoming hostage exchange, which was set to take place on Saturday.
The group accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire deal, specifically by blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and preventing Palestinians from returning to the north. Israel has denied those claims. Frankly, a possible scenario here is that Hamas has suspended further hostage releases, well, because the hostages are the terror group's only remaining leverage.
And there may well be internal dissent and disagreement among Hamas leaders over just how to proceed. There's also the sad possibility that they simply don't have any more live hostages to release or don't have actual control over them, since other groups, including Islamic Jihad and various family criminal groups within Gaza, also took some of the hostages.
Now, hopefully, neither of those things, of course, are true, but it's important to consider every potential situation when evaluating Hamas's actions. While Hamas is objecting to Trump's threats, Israel is fully backing them. The Israeli Security Cabinet released a statement saying that all members support the U.S. president's demands for the release of the hostages by noon on Shabbat.
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Chapter 4: Why is the reconstruction of Gaza estimated to cost over $53 billion?
The statement also praised Trump's, quote, revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza. And speaking of Gaza's future, the UN has put a price tag on what they think it will take to rebuild the enclave after 15 months of war. A new estimate from the UN says reconstruction will cost over 53 billion US dollars, with 20 billion dollars needed in just the first three years.
There is no word yet on how much of that would be pocketed by UNRWA and Hamas leaders. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the destruction in Gaza a, quote, humanitarian catastrophe and warned that a full assessment of the damage isn't even possible yet, given the current conditions on the ground. All right, coming up next, a major policy win for the White House.
Venezuela, a country that's, well, hardly a U.S. ally, has accepted its first deportation flights, sending nearly 200 Venezuelans back home. I'll have those details after the break. Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. The first deportation flights carrying nearly 200 Venezuelans who entered the U.S.
illegally touched down in Caracas on Monday, marking a major victory for the Trump administration. The return of these migrants, long resisted by Venezuela's socialist government, signals a, perhaps, a thaw in U.S.-Venezuelan relations, one that the White House touts as a breakthrough in its broader immigration crackdown.
The two planes, operated by Venezuela's state-run airline, departed from Fort Bliss, Texas, Monday, landing in Caracas hours later. The flights come after months of diplomatic wrangling, culminating in a deal brokered by Trump envoy Richard Grinnell, who traveled to Caracas last month to finalize the details.
Grinnell announced the flights on X, stating, quote, two planes of illegal immigrants left El Paso today, headed to Venezuela, paid for by the Venezuelans. Now, for years, Venezuela refused to cooperate and accept deportation flights, even as its citizens flooded the U.S. southern border in record numbers under the Biden administration.
The impasse, briefly broken under then-President Biden in October 2023, has since hardened again until now. A White House post on X framed the development as a political win, stating, "...repatriation flights to Venezuela have resumed. Make America safe again."
Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro welcomed the flights, though he framed them as a broader push for international cooperation rather than a concession to Washington. The Venezuelan strongman stated, quote, this is the world we want, a world of peace, understanding, dialogue, and cooperation, end quote. Hmm. But even as the first flights landed, Maduro's socialist regime pushed back against U.S.
claims that members of the Trender of Agua or TDA gang used the migrant route to infiltrate the U.S., dismissing the allegations as, quote, ill-intentioned narrative against Venezuelans. The deportations are part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to curb illegal immigration.
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