Former President Trump will not visit Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with congressional Republicans as they consider a next speaker of the House, a source familiar with the 2024 GOP front-runner’s plans told Fox News Digital.

The former president told Fox News Digital last Thursday that he would visit Washington, D.C., and Capitol Hill to take part in a House Republican Conference as members considered who would become the next speaker of the House, following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

A source familiar, though, told Fox News Digital on Monday that the president’s plans had changed, and he will no longer visit Washington or Capitol Hill to take part in those discussions or the House GOP candidate forum set to begin Tuesday evening. 

Trump, early Friday morning, endorsed Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to serve as House speaker.

Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is up against House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., for the role.

Meanwhile, Trump, last week, said he would accept a short-term role as speaker of the House of Representatives to serve as a ‘unifier’ for the Republican Party until lawmakers reach a decision on who should take on the post.

McCarthy was removed as speaker of the House last Tuesday after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a measure against him known as a motion to vacate, accusing him of breaking promises he made to win the speaker’s gavel in January.

‘I have been asked to speak as a unifier because I have so many friends in Congress,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘If they don’t get the vote, they have asked me if I would consider taking the speakership until they get somebody longer term, because I am running for president.’ 

‘They have asked me if I would take it for a short period of time for the party, until they come to a conclusion – I’m not doing it because I want to – I will do it if necessary, should they not be able to make their decision,’ Trump said.

Trump did not specify who had asked him, although a number of GOP lawmakers have said he is their preference for speaker.

Trump stressed that if Republicans cannot come to a consensus, he would take the speakership for a short ’30, 60 or 90-day period.’ 

‘I would only do it for the party,’ he said, emphasizing that his focus is on his presidential campaign. 

Back in January, as the House considered who should become the speaker after Republicans took the majority in the chamber, Gaetz opted not to vote for McCarthy or Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who was floated as an option, but voted instead for the former president.

When Gaetz’s name was called during the seventh round of voting, he responded: ‘Donald John Trump.’ 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio are battling it out this week for the speaker’s gavel.

Here’s the calendar:

House Republicans meet Monday at 6 p.m. ET behind closed doors to hash out their differences. 

GOPers conduct a candidate forum on Tuesday, hearing the pros and cons of those running for speaker. 

On Wednesday, the conference takes a secret vote on who it wants to nominate for speaker on the floor. Keep in mind that the nomination goes to the candidate who secures a majority of the conference. So that figure could be as low as 113 (if they include the three non-voting GOP delegates to the House).

However, the full House votes for speaker. A successful candidate needs an outright majority of all House members voting for someone by name on the floor. So that figure is 217 if all 433 House members participate. 

‘This is going to be a grind,’ said one GOP member to Fox. 

The absolute earliest the House would take a vote on speaker is likely Thursday. And it could take longer than that, frankly. 

Also, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is acting very speaker-esque. He is not resigning his seat, and he reminded everyone during an interview on Fox on Saturday that the House is paralyzed amid the Mideast crisis.

‘To the president, turn off the barbecue and speak to the American people to be the leader the world is looking for,’ McCarthy said Monday morning.

Some Republicans are trying to draft McCarthy to return to the speakership, because they are dissatisfied with the other two candidates and believe McCarthy was improperly removed.

Experts weighed in with Fox News Digital on whether the empty speaker’s seat affected Hamas’ surprise terrorist attack on Israel.

The backdrop behind the race for the speaker’s gavel became more complex after the Palestinian terrorist group launched its war on America’s top ally in the Middle East.

However, experts tell Fox News Digital that the handless gavel after the historic ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had no bearing on Hamas’ deadly surprise attack.

‘The speaker of the House of Representatives (or lack thereof) had nothing to do with the Iranian-backed attack on Israel over the weekend,’ the Heritage Foundation’s Victoria Coates told Fox News Digital on Monday.

‘This plot was coordinated over months and timed to disrupt a potential peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia,’ Coates said. ‘If we are looking for an element in the U.S. government to blame we need look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. ‘

‘For more than two years President Biden has not enforced sanctions on Iranian oil exports, earning Iran tens of billions from, primarily, Communist China,’ she said. ‘According to recent Wall Street Journal reporting, Iran funneled that money directly to Hamas and Hezbollah for this sort of attack.’

Coates added that ‘it seems unlikely the lack of a House speaker for a couple of days was in any way a factor.’

Brookings Institution senior foreign policy fellow Michael O’Hanlon told Fox News Digital he doesn’t believe the empty speaker’s chair had an impact on Hamas’ deadly attack.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ O’Hanlon said. ‘U.S. support was going to be predictably strong with or without.’

The experts’ comments come as House Republicans search for a new lower chamber top dog to replace McCarthy.

Hamas threatened to begin broadcasting the executions of Israeli hostages taken in Saturday’s attack against Israel.on Monday.

A spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, a branch of Hamas, warned in an interview with Al-Jazeera that the group would begin killing one hostage for each Israeli airstrike that lands in Gaza without forewarning. He added that the executions would be recorded and broadcast to the public. Israel has carried out more than a thousand airstrikes in Gaza since the Hamas attack Saturday.

Israel has yet to respond to the ultimatum, but the Israeli Defense Forces have deployed tens of thousands of troops to the area around Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also warned that a ground invasion may be imminent, telling President Biden that ‘we have to go in.’

Israel has already cut off supplies of water, electricity and fuel to Gaza. So far, Israeli airstrikes have killed some 560 people, according to Hamas-run authorities.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed reporting.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, condemned the Hamas attacks on Israel as ‘the largest mass murder of Jews on any day since the Holocaust’ and slammed the Biden administration’s response in scathing remarks Monday.

The Texas Republican, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said ‘ambiguity’ from the administration ‘badly undermines’ Israel’s campaign against Hamas terrorists, further endangering the safety and security of both Israelis and Americans. 

‘On Saturday the world witnessed the largest mass murder of Jews on any day since the Holocaust,’ Cruz said in a statement. 

‘Iran-controlled Hamas terrorists used Nazi tactics in pursuit of Nazi ends: house-to-house murders of entire families, systematic rape and torture, murdering babies in front of their parents or killing parents and kidnapping babies, mass kidnappings, marching victims through streets for mob humiliation, and countless other atrocities.’

Cruz added that thousands of Israelis and a still-unknown number of citizens from other countries are dead, wounded or kidnapped, with reportedly dozens of Americans among them. 

‘Our Israeli allies announced overnight that they are shifting from retaking their territory to an offensive. The United States must ensure that Israel has all the weapons and all the time that it needs to utterly eradicate Hamas, and we must be unambiguous about that commitment,’ Cruz went on to say.

‘Instead, this weekend the State Department repeatedly posted statements and summaries calling for premature ceasefires and for Israel to stand down, while other times Biden administration officials said they were not pressuring Israel.’ 

‘This ambiguity badly undermines our ally’s campaign against the Iran-controlled terrorists in the Gaza Strip, endangering the safety and security of Israelis and Americans,’ he said.

The State Department said at least nine Americans have been killed by Hamas’ strikes on Israel, Fox News has confirmed.

Israeli media also is reporting that at least 800 Israelis have died since Saturday, when the group first began launching terrorist attacks on the country.

The White House has confirmed at least 11 American citizens were killed in the carnage.

The administration has yet to release the names of those Americans, and it has acknowledged the possibility that there are more U.S. citizens being held hostage in Gaza.

Biden spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Monday. The president’s Israeli counterpart warned that a ground invasion of Gaza may be imminent.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

The White House doubled down on hosting a party for ‘non-political’ White House staff on Sunday as war raged in Israel following Hamas’ surprise attacks on the nation.

‘President Biden has been consistently engaged in supporting Israel as they defend themselves against these brutal terrorist attacks,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital on Monday.  

‘Yesterday, after another call with Prime Minister Netanyahu and ordering the American military to provide aid to the [Israel Defense Forces] to ensure they have what they need, the President held a long-scheduled event to thank the hardworking non-political staff who keep the White House running – operating the kitchens, cleaning the White House, and helping keep the complex safe.’

The White House’s response comes after conservative critics on social media erupted that President Biden was enjoying live music at the White House while war raged in Israel and Americans were likely taken hostage and killed by Hamas terrorists.

‘While Hamas holds Americans hostage, Joe Biden is enjoying a picnic with a live band,’ Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley tweeted Sunday evening, accompanied by a screenshot of a White House pool report. 

The pool report, emailed just after 6 p.m. Sunday, notes that a reporter could hear a ‘live band’ at the White House. 

‘In the late afternoon and early evening, a live band could be heard coming from the area near the Rose Garden. Your pooler asked why a band was playing. From the White House: The President and First Lady are hosting a BBQ for White House Executive Residence Staff and their families,’ the pool reporter wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House Sunday evening regarding the event and received comment on the matter Monday.

‘This date was chosen because there were not White House activities that would require their work and they could bring their families. They deserve recognition, and no small, petty comments from partisan media or elected officials change that,’ the White House official said in the statement.

Israel was thrown into chaos Saturday when Hamas terrorists launched surprise attacks on the nation. At least 800 people in Israel have been killed, and more than 2,000 injured. 

The Israeli government officially declared war on Sunday, the first time the nation has made such a declaration since the Yom Kippur War of 1973. 

U.S. officials confirmed that at least 11 Americans have been killed amid the attacks. 

‘We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected,’ a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Israel told Fox News.

‘We continue to monitor the situation closely and remain in touch with our Israeli partners and the local authorities,’ the spokesperson added. ‘We are in touch with the families and providing all appropriate consular assistance.’

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, that ‘Israel has no choice but to seek the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza.’

‘There simply is no diplomatic solution or ‘measured response’ available,’ Rubio wrote on X. ‘This tragically necessary effort will come at a horrifying price. But the price of failing to permanently eliminate this group of sadistic savages is even more horrifying.’

His comments come as GOP lawmakers have been intensifying their calls for the Biden administration to aggressively support Israel in its defense against Hamas terrorist attacks that began Saturday, killing an estimated 700 people and injuring thousands others.

The White House called a press lid at 11:46 a.m. on Monday, indicating that they did not expect President Biden to have any more appearances. The White House confirmed Monday that 11 Americans were among the casualties from the attacks.

Meanwhile, the administration came under fire for holding a staff barbecue with a live band at the White House lawn on Sunday afternoon, just a day after the terrorist attacks began, which drew some criticism.

‘President Biden has been consistently engaged in supporting Israel as they defend themselves against these brutal terrorist attacks,’ the White House told Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.

‘Yesterday, after another call with Prime Minister Netanyahu and ordering the American military to provide aid to the IDF to ensure they have what they need, the President held a long-scheduled event to thank the hardworking non-political staff who keep the White House running — operating the kitchens, cleaning the White House, and helping keep the complex safe. This date was chosen because there were not White House activities that would require their work and they could bring their families. They deserve recognition, and no small, petty comments from partisan media or elected officials change that.’

Rubio urged Israel to respond ‘disproportionately’ to Hamas’s bloody ambush and ‘to any futures attacks from any enemy.’

‘There can be no cease-fire, negotiated solution or peaceful coexistence with depraved barbarians who murder teen-aged girls, children & the elderly and then dump them in the streets of Gaza so bloodthirsty crowds can desecrate their bodies?’ he posted Monday afternoon.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on Monday but also said he is ‘deeply distressed’ by Israel’s response.

Guterres addressed the ongoing conflict from the United Nations briefing room on Monday, telling reporters that ‘nothing can justify’ Hamas’ attack on Israel, which killed at least 800 people.

‘I recognize the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people. But nothing can justify these acts of terror and the killing, maiming and abduction of civilians. I reiterate my call to immediately cease these attacks and release all hostages,’ Guterres said.

The official went on to criticize Israel’s response to the violence, warning the country against harming innocents.

‘While I recognize Israel’s legitimate security concerns, I also remind Israel that military operations must be conducted in strict accordance with international humanitarian law,’ he said. ‘I am deeply distressed by today’s announcement that Israel will initiate a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, nothing allowed in – no electricity, food or fuel. The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before these hostilities; now it will only deteriorate exponentially.’

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: The following column was first published in City Journal.

Israelis are calling it ‘our 9/11.’

The parallels are all too chilling, as Americans, especially New Yorkers, know well. But the devastation for Israel is proportionately even higher than it was for Americans. Adjusted for population, 700 murdered Israelis-the current estimate-would be the equivalent of 21,000 dead Americans. And now the Israeli-Hamas conflict risks widening.

Two days after some 1,000 Hamas militants struck Israel in 22 locations in the deadliest surprise attack since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Israeli forces are still struggling to reclaim Israeli enclaves, secure their border, root out some 200-300 militant infiltrators, end the rocket attacks, and stop the slaughter.

On Sunday, horror unfolded by the hour, with Israel’s death toll climbing to over 700, some 2,400 wounded, and estimates of those abducted rising to more than 130, including children and the disabled. 

The largest killing field yet identified is a music festival, where approximately 260 young Israeli revelers were slaughtered. The United States State Department announced hours ago that at least nine Americans have been killed. Almost equally as shocking, much of the footage of Israeli hostages being led across the desert to Gaza and Israeli security facilities being attacked have come from Hamas, not from the Israeli government, which normally takes pride in its ability to shape a narrative.

Israel seems very much on the military and political defensive. Even as the conflict rages, questions and recriminations have begun pouring in from the families of those killed, wounded, or abducted, and from the millions of Israelis whose lives have been disrupted and confidence in their government shattered by Hamas’s sneak attack.

‘Days after Israeli civilians near the border have been killed or abducted, families have yet to receive a call or a visit from an Israeli representative,’ said Smadar Perry, the veteran Arab affairs correspondent from Yediot Aharonot, Israeli’s largest daily newspaper. ‘This is unprecedented.’

Much of the criticism is now aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Haaretz, one of Israeli’s leading liberal newspapers, called ‘entirely responsible’ for the failures. 

Criticism of his leadership will undoubtedly grow as the shock of the enormity of Israel’s intelligence and security failures wears off. Criticism could also be fueled by early reports that Egypt’s chief of intelligence, Abbas Kamel, warned Netanyahu ten days ago, as Perry reported, that something ‘big’ and ‘worrisome’ was taking place in Gaza and that he ought to consider moving Israeli forces from northern Israel and the West Bank, where settlers and Palestinians have increasingly clashed, to the Gaza border.

For the moment, however, many Israelis are depending on Netanyahu to rally the Israeli Defense Forces, protect their security, and punish Hamas for the targeting of civilians and other war crimes. As Hamas rockets struck Israel early Saturday morning, Netanyahu immediately declared that Israel was at war, vowing that the enemy would ‘pay a price he has never known.’ He also ordered Gazans to leave places inhabited by Hamas. Where they are supposed to go is unclear since Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, has presences throughout the densely populated strip. Gaza’s borders, moreover, are sealed on all sides by Israel, Egypt, and the sea.

On Monday morning, Netanyahu’s defense minister ordered the ‘complete siege’ of Gaza, cutting off electricity, food, fuel, and water to the enclave of some 2.4 million people. Israeli planes pounded Hamas targets in Gaza, with an estimated death toll of over 400 Palestinians. Israeli aircraft have also struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, threatening an expansion of the war to the north. And Hamas rockets are still falling on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Domestically, Netanyahu has been trying to form an emergency unity government. Key leaders of Israel’s political opposition-Benny Gantz, who previously served as IDF chief of staff, and Avigdor Liberman of the Yisrael Beytenu party-expressed willingness to join a temporary coalition government if they are given real influence in devising Israeli policy. But key opposition leader Yair Lapid said that he would do so only if Netanyahu removed far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. 

The two are widely seen as key to Netanyahu’s politically divisive efforts to reduce the power of Israel’s Supreme Court to oversee the government. These putative reforms have polarized and fractured the nation and its military, prompting months of weekly protests. 

Many now blame such divisions for having distracted the Netanyahu government from its core mission of protecting Israeli security. Netanyahu’s team, unsurprisingly, blames the protesters for forcing security services to focus their resources at massive protests rather than using them to protect against external threats.

When the crisis subsides, Netanyahu and his government are likely to face a political reckoning over how Hamas was able to conduct its deadly and unprecedented attack without warning.

Israeli military officials assured reporters today that Israel would examine the causes for what one terrorist analyst called not just an intelligence and security failure, but ‘the failure of everything.’ 

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, vowed that the army would get to the bottom of its failures. ‘First we fight, then we investigate,’ he said.