It has been 100 days since the new U.S. administration took office amid a clear policy of ‘America First.’ 

But for American families like mine, families whose loved ones are still held hostage by Hamas for over 560 days, we should have already seen results from this policy. My son, Itay Chen, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, remains in captivity. So do four other Americans: Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Judy and Gadi Weinstein. Every day that passes without their return is another day of anguish, uncertainty, and pain.

As a father, I wake up every morning hoping this will be the day I get the call from the White House telling me my son is coming home. When President Donald Trump won the election, I felt a renewed sense of hope. I believed that his leadership, strength, and personal concern for American hostages would lead to real movement. And I deeply thank President Trump for demanding the release of all hostages even before his inauguration that led to the release of 33 hostages in Gaza, including two U.S. citizens. 

I believe he cares profoundly, but the truth is, the first 100 days of this administration have not delivered what the president himself demanded – releasing all of the U.S. hostages in Gaza and sending a clear message that holding U.S. hostages anywhere is a liability, not an asset. 

This is not a critique made in anger. It is a plea made in desperation. I understand that diplomacy is complex. I know that the negotiations around hostages—especially in a war zone and involving multiple international actors— require discretion, patience, and nuance. But I also know that time is not on our side. As the weeks pass, the fear grows that the window to bring our loved ones back is narrowing and they will disappear forever.

We have seen this administration act boldly in other arenas to implement the America First policy, particularly when it comes to economic policy. Tariffs and financial pressure have already been deployed as tools of American strength. 

Why not apply similar pressure now to release the U.S. hostages? Instead of the administration being proactive, U.S. families like mine, out of despair, are taking matters into our own hands. We’ve been lobbying Congress to impose direct financial sanctions against Hamas, pressuring banks and financial institutions to freeze assets and urging stricter enforcement of existing measures. Just this month, U.S. families filed a lawsuit against Bashar Masri, an American businessman charging that he provided assistance in constructing infrastructure that allowed Hamas militants to carry out their cross-border rampage, including killing 45 U.S. citizens. We’ve urged the Administration, the Department of Justice and the Treasury to expand these efforts. 

The administration can, and must, do more. Americans – children, fathers, sisters – are all still being held in underground tunnels by a terrorist organization, in conditions we can barely imagine. The previous administration told the American families the way to release our family members would be via Israel as a proxy. Though the plan did not work, the Biden administration kept doubling down on the same plan despite not getting the expected results. 

The Trump administration inherited this policy and should re-evaluate the game plan. President Trump is an extremely gifted negotiator. His team successfully released several U.S. citizens from war zones with direct negotiations. As such, why is President Trump not directly negotiating for the release of U.S. citizens in Gaza, but instead using third parties such as Qatar to negotiate for the release of U.S. citizens? In January, we saw what the president’s direct involvement can do to release hostages. The U.S. has a legal obligation to get its citizens out of harm’s way and if the proxy is not capable of releasing them, then the U.S. must find a different path to release its citizens.  

Trump administration officials have sent a clear message to the world that American lives are not bargaining chips. This administration has the opportunity to reinforce that principle—to lead with strength and show that ‘America First’ means never leaving Americans behind.

I will not lose hope. My faith in America’s power and promise is unbroken. But that hope needs to be matched with action. For Itay. For the other hostages. For the credibility – and the soul – of a nation that is seeking to reset the table with the world based on a true ‘America First’ policy. What a victory it would be if President Trump, in his upcoming visit to the Middle East, will bring on his plane back home the 5 U.S. hostages from Gaza.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., described Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during her 2022 campaign as unrepresentative of American voters, but campaign finance reports revealed she collected at least $31,000 from the former House speaker and her political action committees during her three years in Congress. 

‘I want to make my position clear that I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House,’ Perez told The Columbian in 2022. ‘I look around, I look at my community, and I don’t see leadership in Congress looking like that.’

Despite the moderate Democrat rejecting Pelosi’s leadership on the campaign trail, campaign finance reports show that since she took office in 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez and her Super PAC, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez Campaign Defense Fund, have accepted at least $31,000 from Pelosi and her affiliated Super PACs, including PAC to the Future and Nancy Pelosi for Congress.

According to U.S. Census data, the $31,000 represents more than one third of the median household income for residents in Washington’s third congressional district, which includes Clark County and Vancouver, Washington, the district’s largest city.

‘We need more and more normal people to run for Congress. We need more people that work in the trades,’ Gluesenkamp Perez told Politico in 2023, as she described a Democratic Party out of touch with middle-class Americans. 

‘Just like her pal Nancy Pelosi, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will say and do anything to get elected,’ Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC dedicated to maintaining the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair, told Fox News Digital. 

‘That’s not a quality Washington State families want in their congresswoman.’

Gluesenkamp Perez was first elected to represent Washington in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022 and won re-election in 2024, narrowly defeating her Republican challenger, Joe Kent, for the second time in two House cycles. 

The Washington congresswoman is considered one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in 2026, just as she was in 2024 after winning her 2022 race by less than two points. Republicans are likely to target her seat as an opportunity to widen their majority in the House. 

While Republicans slam Gluesenkamp Perez for flip-flopping on Pelosi, she is also facing the fury of her own party as hundreds of Democratic constituents protested at her town hall on Thursday. 

According to local reporting, including KGW News, protesters held up signs that read, ‘Shame on you,’ and chanted, ‘Vote her out,’ as Gluesenkamp Perez explained why she voted in support of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. 

The SAVE Act, which passed in the House earlier this month, requires voters to obtain proof of citizenship in-person before they register for a federal election and will remove noncitizens from voter rolls. It has been widely rejected by Democrats since its conception, and 208 House Democrats voted against the bill. 

‘I do not support noncitizens voting in American elections – and that’s common sense to folks in Southwest Washington. Voting in our nation’s elections is a sacred right belonging only to American citizens, and my vote for the SAVE Act reflects that principle,’ Gluesenkamp Perez said after voting in support of the SAVE ACT, despite facing vocal opposition from constituents on Thursday for doing so. 

Gluesenkamp Perez also faced disapproval from Washington state Democrats for voting to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he shouted and shook his cane during President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this year.  

Gluesenkamp Perez’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by deadline. 

President Donald Trump’s second term has taken the world by storm in his first 100 days, leaving allies and adversaries scrambling to respond to new U.S. tariffs, stalled peace negotiations and hardball diplomacy from the White House.

On the campaign trail, he pledged to hit allies and foes alike with massive tariffs, end Russia’s war in Ukraine within 24-hours and threatened that ‘all hell’ would break out if all hostages were not freed from the clutches of Hamas in Gaza by the time he entered the Oval Office.

While Trump has been able to make good on some of his promises, other ambitions remain unmet. Here’s what Trump has accomplished and what challenges remain:

Where Russia’s war in Ukraine stands

Trump last week conceded that his pledge to end the three-year-old war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office was ‘figurative,’ acknowledging it was never a realistic goal. The conflict has claimed a reported 1 million casualties.

‘I said that as an exaggeration,’ he told reporters. 

While Trump has faced criticism over his ability to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, his team — led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Antony Rubio — has made some headway, securing a 30-day ceasefire protecting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

But Putin has so far refused to enter any other brokered agreements, despite Kyiv’s willingness to play ball even after the historic Oval Office blow-up between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February.

Though Trump appeared to hold a grudge against Zelenskyy after Ukraine rejected a proposed mineral deal — even blaming him in part for Russia’s illegal invasion — relations between the two leaders appeared to improve over the weekend. Trump also set a new ultimatum for Putin, issuing a deadline to reach a ceasefire deal.

‘Two weeks or less,’ Trump told reporters Sunday, though he later added a bit more time would be acceptable. ‘We’ll see what happens over the next few days. We’ll probably learn a lot.’

Trump said he was ‘surprised and disappointed’ after Putin last week levied a barrage of missiles at Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv in a strike that killed 12 civilians and injured nearly 100 more.

‘I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,’ Trump said in reference to Putin. ‘We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it and just go back to life.’

Trump has not said how or whether he will hold Putin accountable if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire and the White House has not responded to Fox News Digital’s repeated questions regarding the issue.

Gaza ceasefire

Before entering office, Trump repeatedly threatened Hamas that ‘all hell’ would break out if they didn’t return all hostages by the time he arrived at the White House. 

But the Palestinian terror group has ignored his threats and rejected Trump’s February proposal to turn the Gaza Strip into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East,’ saying it would adhere to a ceasefire agreement brokered between the terrorist organization and Israel, mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt. 

Trump has not hit Hamas, nor have his negotiations to release hostages looked all that different from his predecessor’s.  

The first phase of what was intended to be a three-phase ceasefire saw the return of 33 hostages taken by Hamas, the majority of whom were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, as well as the release of 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held by Jerusalem. 

But 59 hostages remain in Gaza, including American-Israeli Edan Alexander, and hopes of a second phase collapsed after negotiations stalled on terms surrounding future hostage releases, and in March Israel reignited military operations in the Gaza Strip.

A Qatari official on Sunday said the main hiccup in securing a ceasefire following the latest round of talks last week is that Israel has not presented a clear solution to end the war in exchange for hostage releases, Reuters reported. 

Trump on Friday said he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to reopen aid corridors into Gaza, which have been blocked since March 2, in order to allow food and medicine to reach Palestinians, though humanitarian corridors have not yet been opened. 

Iran nuclear agreement

Trump on Sunday said he believes a deal to end Iran’s nuclear program can be achieved ‘without having to start dropping bombs all over the place.’

Details on nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in Oman on Saturday, in which the third round of talks were held, remain nil, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly told Iranian state media they were ‘very serious and work-focused.’ 

Araghchi described the hours-long talks as having finally ‘entered into deeper and more detailed discussions,’ though no specifics of the negotiations have been released. 

It remains unclear if the Trump administration is pursuing a halt to Tehran’s nuclear advancement or a complete disarmament arrangement, which would see the destruction of Iran’s centrifuge facilities and its stockpiles of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium. 

It also remains unclear how much time the president will allow for the negotiations to carry on. 

Relations with China deteriorate

Relations between the U.S. and China have hit a level of animosity not seen between the two superpowers since Washington normalized ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1970s. 

The initial U.S.-China trade war started during Trump’s first term, in which he hit China with 25% tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods in April 2018.

Beijing responded by slapping reciprocal tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. goods, mostly targeting U.S. agricultural products worth some $16.5 billion — a trade war that saw the loss of a quarter of a million U.S. jobs by January 2021, according to the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC).

From the campaign trail, Trump threatened to hit China with 60% tariffs — which he nearly did in early April when he announced an additional 34% tariff on top of the existing taxes already in place. 

But what had already sent geopolitical shockwaves and sparked near-immediate market concerns was further escalated just over a week later when Trump ratcheted up tariffs on Beijing to 145%. 

China has responded by hitting Washington with its own 125% reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports and, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday, cargo supply shipments have already dropped by 60%.

Americans are expected to begin feeling the pains of the trade war come mid-May.

Trump said last week he had reached some 200 trade deals with countries affected by his sweeping tariffs — measures that hit nearly every U.S. trading partner, including longtime allies. He paused the tariffs for 90 days earlier this month following intense backlash.

The status of trading relations with U.S. partners remains unclear, along with whether the administration will implement the blanket tariffs on those nations come July.

The 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum and imported vehicles remain in effect.

The White House did not directly respond to Fox News Digital’s questions regarding next steps Trump will takes when it comes to handling thus far unresolved conflict in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.

A White House spokesman instead said, ‘President Trump inherited widespread foreign conflicts and a weak standing on the world stage from Joe Biden. Now, America is strong again, hostages are free from Gaza, Marc Fogel and Ksenia Karelina are home, hundreds of Houthi and other terrorists have been eliminated, and we are closer to peace than ever before. 

‘This President will never get the credit he deserves for his vast foreign policy accomplishments, but Americans know they are freer and safer under his leadership,’ the spokesman added.