President Donald Trump reiterated a promise Monday to punish Hamas and its sponsors severely if it does not release the 101 Israeli hostages, including several Americans, by the time he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
Trump posted on Truth Social in the wake of news that one of the American hostages held by Hamas was in fact dead, and a day after Hamas released a video of another, living American-Israeli hostage in an effort to pressure Trump to lean on the Israeli government to make concessions.
Trump, on Truth Social, wasn’t having it:
Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!
