Trump reacts to Starmer plan to recognize Palestine: ‘Could make the case that you're rewarding Hamas'
'You could make the case that you're rewarding Hamas if you do that,' Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One en route to Washington from Scotland. 'I'm not about to do that.'
3 President Trump and Keir Starmer in Scotland on July 28.
REUTERS
Earlier in the day, Starmer committed to granting Palestine UK recognition during the United Nations General Assembly in September, following in the footsteps of France, unless Israel takes 'substantive steps' to remedy humanitarian concerns in the Gaza Strip and agrees to a long-term plan for a two-state solution.
Trump, who met with Starmer at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland on Monday, said that the British PM didn't tell him of his plan beforehand.
'We never did discuss it, and we have no view on that. We're going to get a lot of money to the area so they can get some food,' the president said.
Last week, Trump had struck a more dismissive tone against French President Emmanuel Macron, chiding that 'what he says doesn't matter' and that the move didn't 'carry any weight.'
3 Trump and Starmer speak to the media at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland on July 28, 2025.
AP
Starmer, Macron and other Western leaders have sought to ramp up pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to flow into the war-torn enclave amid troubling images of starved children in Gaza.
Hamas has so far refused to give up remaining Israeli hostages to end the war and allow for a cease-fire, which many officials believe would make distributing aid in Gaza much more doable. The latest round of negotiations broke down last week.
3 Hamas fighters in Gaza City before the release of Israeli hostages on Feb. 1.
MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Over the weekend, Israel began allowing airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
On Monday, Trump publicly cast doubt on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's denial that there was mass starvation in Gaza and said that the US intends to send more food to the Palestinians there.
'Those are kids that are starving,' Trump reflected Tuesday en route back to the US. 'You see the mothers. They love them so much. There's just nothing they seem to be able to do. They got to get them food, and we're going to get them food.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
19 minutes ago
- New York Times
Corrections: Aug. 5, 2025
Because of an editing error, an article on Saturday about the impact of President Trump's shifting tariff levels on the African nation of Lesotho misstated the day Lesotho's 15 percent tariff rate was announced. It was Thursday night, not Friday night. An article on Monday about a city in Kansas suing over a planned ICE detention center misstated the language in a poster seen at a protest of an immigration detention facility in Leavenworth, Kan. The poster said that Leavenworth is 'more than a prison town,' rather than 'not just a prison town.' An article on Friday about Ford Motor announcing that it lost money in the second quarter as tariffs took a toll on its business misstated the day that Ford reported its second-quarter earnings. It was Wednesday, not Tuesday. A picture from the streaming outlet TBPN published with an article on Friday about A.I. researchers' pay packages misidentified a Microsoft employee who used to work at Google's DeepMind lab. The person shown in the image was not Amar Subramanya. An article on Saturday about the negative impact that the Trump administration's tariffs are having on businesses they were meant to help misstated the month that the United States lost 11,000 manufacturing jobs. It was July, not June. The article also misstated the number of manufacturing job losses in June, based on initial estimates. The revised number was 15,000, not 6,000. The earlier estimate was 6,000. An article on Sunday about a veteran lifeguard's Friday routine misstated, in some instances, Javier Rodriguez's surname on second reference and that of his three adult children. Their surname is Rodriguez, not Hernandez. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions. To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email nytnews@ To share feedback, please visit Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to letters@ For newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email customercare@
New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump to Create Task Force for L.A. Olympics on Security
President Trump plans to create a task force Tuesday that would boost the federal government's hand in preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, a city where officials have a strained relationship with the president. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump is scheduled to sign an executive order creating a White House task force for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a White House official said. The task force will focus on security along with other logistics for the Olympic Games, which are scheduled to begin in July 2028 and will be followed by the Summer Paralympics in August. The Department of Homeland Security has classified the games as a National Special Security Event, a designation given to high-profile events to coordinate security plans with the F.B.I., the Secret Service and other federal agencies. It was unclear how closely the task force will work with local officials in Los Angeles, a city led by Democrats. The Trump administration has had a strained relationship with leaders across Southern California, which has been the target of widespread immigration raids that began in June. A temporary restraining order has barred federal agents from making immigration arrests in the region without probable cause, and Los Angeles and several other cities joined a lawsuit seeking to stop the raids. Planning for the Olympics comes as Los Angeles faces a budget crisis worsened by two devastating wildfires in January that destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Organizing the Olympics in any city is a massive undertaking that involves preparing for thousands of athletes and tourists, but officials in Los Angeles have said they are confident the games will be a success. In a statement on Monday, Casey Wasserman, the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, thanked Mr. Trump and his administration for their 'leadership and unwavering support' ahead of the games. The games will mark the first time an American city has hosted the Summer Olympics since Atlanta did in 1996. A deadly pipe bomb exploded during the games at Centennial Olympic Park and injured many. Los Angeles had previously hosted the games in 1932 and 1984. The 2028 Olympics will be held at venues across Southern California, including Long Beach, Inglewood, Carson and Arcadia. At least two events, canoe slalom and softball, will be played outside of California in Oklahoma City.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Netanyahu to urge ‘full conquest' of Gaza as ceasefire talks reach an impasse
Negotiations on a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza appear to be at an impasse, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaning towards expanded military operations and Hamas demanding the humanitarian situation be addressed before it returns to talks. Netanyahu will urge a meeting of the security cabinet on Tuesday to support the full 'conquest of the Strip' according to reports in Israeli media that were described as accurate by a source familiar with the matter. Israel's Ynet cited senior officials close to Netanyahu as saying: 'The die is cast – we're going for full conquest. If the Chief of Staff doesn't agree – he should resign.' The source told CNN that the defense establishment opposes an expansion of ground operations in areas where the hostages are believed to be held, as it would risk putting them in harm's way. The report was criticized by a group of mothers of Israeli soldiers, saying it would be fatal for both hostages and soldiers. The Palestinian Authority called on the international community to intervene. Asked about plans to widen the military campaign, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said Monday it reflected 'a wish to see all the hostages come back, and the wish to see the end of this war after the talks for a partial deal were not successful.' It's unclear whether the Israeli government's approach is in line with that of US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff spent three hours with the families of Israeli hostages on Saturday, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum quoted him as saying that the plan 'is not to expand the war but to end it. We think the negotiations should be changed to all or nothing. End the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time – that's the only way.' 'We have a plan to end the war and bring everyone home,' Witkoff reportedly added. 'Someone will be to blame' if the remaining living hostages do not return to Israel still alive, he said, according to the forum. When asked, Witkoff's team did not offer any further information on the special envoy's comments. Trump said Sunday that Witkoff would likely be traveling to Moscow later in the week. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. There was widespread shock in Israel at the release of images by Hamas at the weekend of two of the hostages – Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski – looking weak and emaciated. Netanyahu said the images demonstrated that Hamas 'don't want a deal. They want to break us with these horrifying videos, with the false horror propaganda they're spreading around the world.' However, the families forum warned the government against expanding the military campaign in Gaza. 'Netanyahu is preparing the greatest deception of all. The repeated claims of freeing hostages through military victory are a lie and a public fraud,' the forum said Sunday. The forum called on Israel and Hamas to commit to bringing 'the 50 hostages home, ending the war, and then rebuilding and reviving Israel,' the statement said. Hamas has insisted it is committed to negotiations but only when 'the catastrophic humanitarian situation' is addressed, according to Basem Naim, a senior Hamas political official. Another Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told CNN last week there was 'no point' in continuing talks as long as Gaza's starvation crisis persists. Hunger-related deaths in Gaza spiked in July, the World Health Organization said last week. Malnutrition rates reached 'alarming levels,' with more than 5,000 children under five admitted for outpatient treatment of malnutrition in just the first two weeks of July, WHO said. The Hamas-controlled Government Media Office in Gaza said Monday that 600 truckloads of aid were needed every day to alleviate the hunger crisis and claimed that in the past week an average of 84 trucks a day had entered the territory. COGAT, the Israeli agency supervising the delivery of aid into Gaza, said Monday that more than 200 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organizations on Sunday. But many of the trucks that do get in are looted, either by desperate civilians or organized gangs. The United Nations said on Friday that nearly 1,400 people have been killed since the end of May while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of sites run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and 514 along the routes of food convoys. The UN said that 'most of the killings were committed by the Israeli military.' Thirty people were killed on Sunday while trying to get food, 19 of them in the north and 11 in the vicinity of an aid site run by the GHF in Rafah, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. Opinion polls in Israel have consistently shown a large majority in favor of ending the conflict in Gaza and securing the release of the hostages. A new survey by the Institute for National Security Studies found that 38% of Israeli Jews thought it was not possible to disarm Hamas; 57% thought it was possible. On Monday, hundreds of retired Israeli security officials urged Trump to pressure Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza. 'It is our professional judgement that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel,' the former officials wrote in an open letter shared with the media on Monday. 'At first this war was a just war, a defensive war, but when we achieved all military objectives, this war ceased to be a just war,' said Ami Ayalon, former director of the Shin Bet security service. But far-right members of the government are pushing for the occupation of much of Gaza and measures to encourage its population to leave the territory altogether.
