First lady Jill Biden felt she became a ‘full-fledged’ member of the family after Joe Biden had two brain aneurysms in 1988, and she took a more elevated role in family decisions, a new book details. 

‘She was exhausted. In the hospital, as she watched Joe’s mother, sister, and brothers debate the best path forward for Joe’s treatment, something in her broke,’ an upcoming book titled ‘American Woman’ says describing Jill Biden as the future president underwent medical treatments at Walter Reed in 1988 for brain aneurysms.

‘‘Wait a minute!’ she yelled at the group. ‘He’s my husband. I should be making the decision here.’’

The moment, underscored by Joe’s mom urging the family to listen to Jill, marked when Jill Biden says she felt she had ‘become a full- fledged Biden,’ the book details. 

‘The Bidens were stunned, until Joe’s mother eventually agreed: ‘She’s right,’ Jean Biden told the group, settling the matter. That was the moment, as Jill has recounted, that she felt she had become a full-fledged Biden.’

‘American Woman,’ authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, will be released Tuesday and documents how the role of first lady has evolved in the 21st century, focusing on Jill Biden’s tenure in the White House. 

Joe and Jill Biden married in 1977, following the death of the future president’s first wife and their young daughter in a car accident in 1972. Biden had two other children with his first wife, Beau and Hunter, who were later raised by Jill Biden alongside their younger half-sister Ashley Biden. 

As a Delaware senator, Biden had two life-threatening brain aneurysms and doctors said he had a 50-50 shot of surviving.

‘If he did survive, there was a chance that the part of his brain that governed his speech would be damaged,’ the book continued. 

‘For Jill, the diagnosis was the latest setback after a stressful year. She had spent months campaigning on his behalf, despite her discomfort with public speaking. She was raising their three children, Beau, Hunter, and Ashley, who were all in different stages of adjusting to school and life in Delaware.’

Biden’s surgeries were successful, with no reports of an aneurysm since. 

After Jill Biden experienced the turning point of becoming a ‘full-fledged’ member of the family, she went on to become the ‘powerful guardian of the Biden inner circle,’ the book describes. 

‘As the president and his last surviving son, Hunter, have become targets for conservatives in a rapidly toxifying political landscape, Jill has emerged as the powerful guardian of the Biden inner circle, defining herself as a ‘Philly girl’ who is not to be crossed,’ the book states. 

The book goes on to note that Jill Biden has been a leading force behind Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, which is partially motivated by a ‘dislike for Trump.’ 

‘She is powerful within the Biden White House and was an enthusiastic supporter of her husband’s decision to announce a run for reelection at age eighty,’ ‘American Woman’ claims. 

‘Her dislike for Trump was a driving reason behind her support for Joe’s campaign for the presidency, and it remains so for his reelection effort, even if that means he will not leave office until age eighty-six at the end of a second term,’ the book later claims.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday said the Ukraine aid package that hangs in the balance after clearing the Senate with bipartisan support is critical for U.S. munitions production amid concern of a shortage. 

Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Sullivan to respond to concerns voiced by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at the Munich Security Conference last week. Vance, who reportedly skipped out on a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the conference, advocated for a ‘negotiated peace’ with Russia, raising concern that the United States does not make enough munitions to support a war in Eastern Europe, a war in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, ‘and potentially a contingency in East Asia’ if China were to invade Taiwan. 

‘What is the president’s plan for rebuilding this gap now in weaponry – so we can help our allies, so we can protect ourselves?’ Bream asked, citing a recent report published by Defense News claiming the U.S. will run out of critical munitions only eight days into a high intensity conflict with China over Taiwan. 

‘We have discovered over the past two years, since the start of the war in Ukraine, since Biden came into office, that the cupboards were not as full as they should have been based on underinvestment over the course of the past 20 years, and we have been working since day one of this administration to build up the defense industrial base, to increase the production of critical munition systems,’ Sullivan said. ‘And three years into the Biden administration, we are producing significantly more than the day we walked into office.’ 

‘Second, this bill, this bipartisan bill that the Senate just passed, is the best answer to your question. It contains substantial resources to enhance the production capacity of our defense industrial base so that we can build munitions not just for Ukraine, but also to make sure that the United States military has the tools it needs to deter any adversary anywhere in the world, any time,’ Sullivan continued. ‘If we don’t pass this bill, it is going to mean less money going to 40 of the 50 states of the United States that are currently in the process of producing critical munitions. We have got to get that money out the door.’ 

The U.S. is considering ramping up production of 150mm munitions to 100,000 a month by the end of 2025, Vance noted in his speech, while the Russians ‘make close to 500,000 a month right now at this very minute.’ 

‘So the problem here vis-à-vis Ukraine is America doesn’t make enough weapons, Europe doesn’t make enough weapons, and that reality is far more important than American political will or how much money we print and then send to Europe,’ Vance said. 

Sullivan, who appeared on several other network news programs Sunday morning, is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring a package for billions more in U.S. aid for Ukraine to a vote. 

‘There is not a shortage of bravery or courage on the part of the Ukrainians. Right now, there is a shortage of bullets,’ Sullivan admitted earlier in the program. ‘The way to fill that shortage is for Congress on a bipartisan basis to pass funding that will give Ukraine the tools it needs to succeed and to ensure that Russia fails in this conquest. We believe that they are capable of doing that. And in fact, the bipartisan Senate vote could be replicated in the House if the speaker would put the bill on the floor.’ 

On Friday, the United States and European Union heaped hundreds of new sanctions on Russia in connection with the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony. The U.S. government imposed roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single round of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

President Biden on Friday called on Congress to pass Ukraine aid, condemning Johnson for giving the House a two-week vacation while Russia is taking Ukrainian territory for the first time in months. ‘They have to come back and get this done, because failure to support Ukraine in this critical moment will never be forgotten in history,’ he said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican leader, is endorsing former President Trump for reelection.

It’s a key win for Trump from the establishment wing of the Republican Party. The South Dakota Republican is Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s top deputy in the Senate GOP.

‘The primary results in South Carolina make clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in this year’s pivotal presidential election. The choice before the American people is crystal clear: It’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden,’ Thune told Fox News Digital.

‘I support former President Trump’s campaign to win the presidency, and I intend to do everything I can to see that he has a Republican majority in the Senate working with him to restore American strength at home and abroad,’ he continued.

‘Together we must put an end to the disastrous Biden-Schumer agenda. Our country cannot endure another four years of Bidenomics, continued lawlessness at our southern border, and American weakness on the global stage.’

Thune and Trump spoke by phone on Saturday night after Trump’s commanding victory in the South Carolina Republican primary, a source familiar with the call told Fox News Digital.

It wasn’t clear before now whether Thune, who’s seen as one of McConnell’s potential successors to lead the Senate Republican Conference, would endorse either of the two major candidates for the 2024 GOP nomination. 

Like McConnell, he suggested he would support whoever Republican voters chose as their presidential nominee, but Thune has for the most part avoided mentioning the former president.

He previously endorsed South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential campaign and was present at Scott’s launch event. Scott dropped out in November and endorsed Trump last month.

The Sunday announcement puts added pressure on McConnell, who has brushed off scrutiny on whether his frosty relationship with Trump would stop him from endorsing the ex-president in the Republican primary.

McConnell said at a press conference this month when asked about the race, ‘I’ve stayed essentially out of it, and when I change my mind about that, I’ll let you know.’

Both Thune and McConnell were targeted by Trump for criticizing his handling of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the 2020 election.

Thune won a landslide reelection victory for a fourth Senate term in 2022 despite Trump calling for a primary challenger against him.

His endorsement of the former president comes after Trump beat former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state primary on Saturday night. The ex-president won roughly 60% of the vote compared to 40% for Haley.

A new book detailing the evolving role of the first lady in the 21st century argues that former first lady Melania Trump engaged in a ‘power struggle’ with her stepdaughter Ivanka Trump when Donald Trump was president. 

‘For her four years in the White House, Melania would wage an internal power struggle with her stepdaughter. Melania called her ‘the princess’ so frequently that a coterie of East Wing aides had adopted the nickname,’ the book ‘American Woman’ writes. 

‘American Woman,’ authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, will officially hit store shelves Tuesday and examines how the role of first lady has evolved this century, focusing much of the book on first lady Jill Biden.  

Fox News Digital reviewed the book before its release, and found it details an alleged struggle for power between former President Trump’s wife and daughter. The book argues that Melania Trump was ‘going to do her own thing’ upon Trump being sworn in as president, including staying in New York City so their son Barron Trump could finish the school year. Trump lauded the first lady shortly after becoming president, while noting she would be bolstered by his daughter, Ivanka Trump. 

‘I think she’s going to be a fantastic first lady. She’s going to be a tremendous representative of women and of the people,’ the new president said. ‘And helping her and working with her will be Ivanka, who is a fabulous person and a fabulous, fabulous woman,’ he said in 2017. 

At the start of the Trump administration, ‘American Woman’ argues, Melania Trump monitored social media and news outlets for personal mentions, while allegedly souring at the plan to elevate Ivanka Trump’s role in the White House. 

‘She was aware that her husband had suggested that his eldest daughter would be helping to share the responsibilities of being First Lady, and this was not a development that pleased her. At the time, Ivanka was staking out office space in the West Wing but was eyeing the potential of a revamped East Wing that could be geared to serving the entire First Family, not just the First Lady, according to people familiar with her plans,’ the text of the book reads. 

Ivanka Trump was hired as an unpaid adviser to her father in March 2017, joining her husband Jared Kushner as official government employees. 

‘The suggestion irritated Melania, who put a stop to the talk of a family-led wing. A month later, Ivanka announced that she would become an official government employee, working as an unpaid adviser for her father,’ according to the book. 

As Melania navigated her new role, she allegedly also renegotiated a prenuptial agreement, including stipulations that her son Barron Trump was guaranteed ‘equal footing with Donald’s other children,’ according to the book, citing Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan. Jordan’s book on Melania Trump was previously panned by the first lady’s office as belonging in ‘the fiction genre.’

In June 2018, Melania Trump came under fire in the media after wearing a jacket with the words ‘I really don’t care, do U?’ ahead of visiting a youth migrant detention center with her husband. The jacket’s message reportedly had no underlying message, the White House said when photos first circulated of the first lady. 

The book, however, claims the jacket wasn’t a message directed at the media, but instead to Ivanka Trump. 

‘The two were locked in a quiet competition for press coverage and, to that end, Melania did not think that it was appropriate for Trump’s children to be enmeshed in White House operations,’ an excerpt reads. 

Overall, the book argues, Melania Trump was ‘frustrated and angry’ with how she was portrayed by the media, and that nothing she did ‘would be enough to escape scrutiny,’ including decorating the White House for Christmas. 

‘By 2020, when the pandemic was setting in, Melania had taken to wearing elegant robes at all hours. In the evenings, she would occasionally visit her husband in his bedroom, perching on his bed and listening as he placed calls to and received calls from advisers. She busied herself with assembling photo albums of her aesthetic contributions to the White House,’ the book states. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of Donald J. Trump regarding the book and its claims, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Trump, who notched another primary win this weekend when he swept the South Carolina GOP primary, recently said the former first lady would ramp up her campaign trail appearances ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

‘It’s funny, she was a very successful model, very, very successful, and yet she was a private person. She’s going to be out a lot. Not because she likes doing it, but she likes the results,’ he said last Tuesday to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. ‘She wants to see this country really succeed. She loves the country.’

Israel will carry out an invasion of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, regardless of whether or not it reaches a hostage exchange agreement with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

Netanyahu made the statement during a Sunday morning appearance on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ with host Margaret Brennan. He stated that Israel was still engaged in hostage negotiations, but added that the Jewish state was committed to rooting out Hamas with as little harm to civilians as possible.

‘If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway,’ Netanyahu said of the Rafah operation.

He went on to say that any Israeli operation in Rafah would signal that Israel is just ‘weeks away’ from total victory in the war against Hamas.

The new timing is a far cry from statements Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made in recent weeks. Netanyahu had previously predicted that the war would last ‘many more months.’

The U.S. has insisted that Israel implement a plan to protect civilians in the event of a Rafah invasion. Brennan said Netanyahu told her that he was meeting ‘with the General Staff to discuss the ‘dual plan’ of how to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah & how to lay siege to Hamas battalions there,’ she said.

The Israeli government also released its post-war plan for Gaza on Friday, a deal that was immediately rejected by Palestinian officials.

Under the plan, Israel would seek open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu’s government has flatly rejected calls for a two-state solution, which President Biden’s administration continues to push for.

The Israeli Parliament backed Netanyahu’s rejection of any ‘unilateral’ recognition of a Palestinian state last week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden’s key to a lasting and happy marriage is ‘good sex,’ according to a new book detailing Jill Biden’s role as first lady. 

‘Joe may have tamped down on his public bedroom declarations winning the presidency, but he has joked to aides that ‘good sex’ is the key to a lasting and happy marriage, much to his wife’s chagrin,’ Katie Rogers writes in an upcoming book obtained by Fox News Digital.

The book describes that ahead of the 2008 presidential election, in 2006, ‘Joe still seemed more interested in staying home with Jill than in running for the presidency.’

‘I’d rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep,’ Biden said in public remarks that year when asked about a potential 2008 presidential run. 

‘The remark might’ve surprised some in the audience, but it drew little more than a shrug from a spokesman, who explained that the senator was ‘frankly totally in love with his wife,’’ the book continued. 

‘American Woman,’ authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, will be released Tuesday and documents how the role of first lady has evolved in the 21st century, focusing on Jill Biden’s tenure in the White House. 

Excerpts of the book, including the president’s comments regarding ‘good sex’ as the key to a happy marriage, have since been mocked and panned by critics on social media.

‘Joe Biden, a man who can barely walk up a set of stairs, says the key to his marriage is ‘’good sex,’’ X account Not The Bee tweeted. 

‘Joe Biden who can’t climb the stairs without falling, says the secret to his marriage is ‘good sex.’ Really,’ Outkick founder Clay Travis tweeted. 

 ‘I don’t even know what to say about this post. Why?’ Bo Snerdley, of ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’ fame, tweeted. 

The president and first lady met in 1975 after Joe Biden’s first wife Neilia Hunter Biden died in a car accident in 1972, alongside the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Naomi. The couple’s other two children, Beau and Hunter, survived the car crash. Joe Biden was sworn in as a Delaware senator just two weeks after the tragedy.  

‘According to both Bidens, Jill first met the boys in early 1975, months after she began dating Joe. He had lost his first wife, Neilia, and his infant daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in December 1972, just weeks after winning his first Senate race,’ the book details. 

Jill Biden, however, was hesitant about the relationship, the book argues, as she was freshly divorced at 23 after a ‘counterfeit love’ with her first husband. 

‘The idea of marrying Joe, a thirty-two-year-old widower still knitting his family back together, was daunting. Which is why it took Joe five marriage proposals before she finally said yes,’ the book continues. 

Beau Biden also reportedly encouraged the relationship, saying, ‘Dad, we think we should marry Jill,’ when he was 7 years old. 

Joe and Jill Biden married in 1977, and Beau and Hunter began calling the future first lady ‘Mom,’ while referring to their deceased mother as ‘Mommy.’

‘When Jill married Joe in June 1977, the boys came with them on a mini honeymoon, taking their own room in a hotel suite,’ the book continues. 

Joe and Jill Biden will mark their 47th wedding anniversary in June. 

JERUSALEM — Reports the Biden administration and a small group of Middle East states will soon begin pushing a new peace initiative with the aim of creating a Palestinian state have drawn pushback from the Israeli government, which declared this week it will not accept ‘international diktats.’  

Regional experts also say such efforts are doomed to fail as they have in the past.   

Last week, the Israeli government, including more moderate members of what is considered to be the most right-wing cabinet Israel ever, unanimously declared its opposition to any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying such a move would only reward terrorism and prevent a future peace settlement.

‘If a settlement is to be reached, it will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions,’ a statement issued by the government said.

An Israeli media report over the weekend suggested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had, however, presented his security cabinet members with a discussion paper about Gaza, stating clearly that Israel plans to maintain security control over all land west of Jordan, including Gaza and other parts of the territories where Palestinians hope to establish an independent state.

Israel has been battling the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 when thousands of its terrorists crossed the border, murdering 1,200 people and taking some 240 people hostage. Even as Israeli troops gear up for what could be the final phase of the war, Netanyahu and his defense chief Yoav Gallant remain reluctant to discuss any broader future arrangements for the war-torn enclave.

Prof. Efraim Inbar, President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told Fox News Digital efforts by the U.S. administration to find a solution to the decades-old intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict were nothing new and, as in the past, efforts to bring about a Palestinian state, particularly under the current conditions, were unlikely to succeed. 

‘What the Americans want, a revitalized Palestinian Authority, is nothing new. … We saw a similar attempt during the Bush era,’ Inbar said. ‘I think the question we should be asking is why would a Palestinian state look any different to the Palestinian entities we’ve seen so far?’

Inbar said any future Palestinian state would need to be ready to ‘make some real compromises,’ including recognizing the Zionist movement, accepting Israel as a Jewish state and Jerusalem as its capital and relinquishing some of its territorial dreams. 

A Palestinian state would also have to exclude terror entities like Hamas, who Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh recently referred to as being ‘part of the Palestinian people’ and ‘a partner in any future political entity.’ 

‘These attempts are noble, but they did not succeed in the past, and I do not see that the current Palestinian leadership is ready to change the situation,’ said Inbar. 

Even Fatah, the Palestinian political faction led by the current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, ‘are not the nicest of neighbors,’ he said, noting that, in the past few months ‘dozens’ of members of the Authority’s official security forces have carried out terror attacks against Israelis and that after 30 years of PA rule, the population had been indoctrinated to ‘hate Jews and Israel.’ 

‘I’m not optimistic about what a Palestinian state would look like at this stage,’ Inbar said. He added the Palestinian people had also given up hope with their own leadership due to corruption and that any future Palestinian state would most likely carry the same political culture as others in the Arab world, namely dictatorships and tribalism. 

Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist and political analyst, also expressed doubts about the success of a future Palestinian state based on past attempts to create a self-governing entity. 

‘In my opinion, those leaders who are calling for a Palestinian state have forgotten one important thing – that a state must be built before it is recognized,’ he said. 

Eid said there is no suitable infrastructure for a Palestinian state — no real economy and a society where the majority of the population still lived in refugee camps. 

‘What kind of state would that be?’ he wondered. ‘I don’t think that is the kind of state the Palestinians are hoping for.’

‘My conclusion is that the Palestinians are not really qualified for a state,’ he said, describing how the last attempt to create a Palestinian state was when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon disengaged from Gaza. 

‘He wanted to give the Palestinians Gaza so they could start building their own state, but look at what they did there. They turned Gaza from Singapore into ISIS,’ he said. ‘I don’t think that calling for a Palestinian state right now is a legitimate demand.’ 

Eid said he believed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ‘set the Israeli-Palestinian conflict backward 50 years’ and that instead of calling for the creation of a Palestinian state, there should be international efforts to ‘build bridges to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together’ after the trauma. 

He also said the focus now should move away from the Palestinian Authority, and from Hamas, who are both ‘specialists in destroying states,’ and should be put instead on local Palestinian tribes. 

‘Let’s call the tribes and give them a chance to rule,’ said Eid. ‘I believe they will succeed in ruling the Palestinians much better than Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. At least let them try for the next five years, then probably a charismatic Palestinian leader will emerge, we can hold elections and then negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians can start.’ 

Khaled Hassan, a political risk and intelligence analyst with over 13 years of experience working in the Middle East, also said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state under the current conditions were dim. 

‘The establishment of a state requires tremendous efforts and international support, including a unified nationalist movement, similar to the Zionist Movement in the early 20th century,’ he told Fox News Digital. 

‘A Palestinian state would, most importantly, need Palestinian unity and Israeli recognition,’ he said, adding that any discussion over who might lead this potential state would ‘most likely spark a civil war among Palestinians’ and that ‘Israel was highly unlikely to recognize a Palestinian state.’

‘A Palestinian state can’t be imposed on Israel,’ Hassan said. ‘Arab states have for decades recognized a Palestinian state, but this has led to little to nothing in reality. Although, if there was American and British unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, that could result in unprecedented political, and legal, repercussions for Israel.’ 

‘It might not lead to a Palestinian state coming to life, but it would greatly diminish Israel’s standing within the international community,’ he said. 

If such a state did successfully emerge, Hassan added, the Palestinians would grapple with finding suitable leadership. 

‘Hamas is demanding not only to be part of a future state, but to lead it,’ he said. He said the creation of a state as a result of the Oct. 7 terror attacks would be ‘an explicit recognition of Hamas as a resistance movement whose attacks led to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

‘For Palestinians, the legitimacy of a political leader is largely based on their involvement in anti-Israel terror, so any Palestinian leaders who condemn terrorism are perceived as traitors and agents of Israel.’ 

He noted that previous U.S. attempts to install a more moderate Palestinian leader, one that rejected terrorism, had ‘been met with staggering frustration.’ 

‘Public statements by the late Egyptian presidents Sadat and Mubarak, as well as U.S. President Bill Clinton have illustrated this,’ said Hassan, recalling the widespread condemnation and boycott of Egypt due to its peace treaty with Israel. 

‘Sadat described Arabs, including Palestinians, who boycotted Egypt over the talks as reckless ‘children and teenagers’ who should not be entrusted with the fate of Egyptians, Arabs and Palestinians,’ he said. ‘His words still ring true 40 years later as the world watches what the recklessness of Palestinian leaders have brought upon their people and upon millions of Israelis who did not want this war.’ 

While the challenges to creating a Palestinian state appear insurmountable, Omer Zanany, head of the joint unit for peace and security at the Mitvim Institute and the Berl Katznelson Center in Israel, said Israelis under the current government were also likely to thwart the efforts. 

He said Israel faces two choices – continuing the war in Gaza at the risk of the conflict escalating to other fronts or seizing what might be a ‘historic opportunity to end the war, bring home the hostages and defeat Hamas by entering into negotiations for a two-state solution.’ 

Zanany, who heads a joint Israeli-Palestinian task force exploring the options, said there needed to be a gradual process that would bring enduring security for both Israelis and Palestinians. Such a process, he said, would put ‘hope’ on the political horizon that would help to bring about crucial changes in both societies. 

‘If we know there’s something that we can change, we have to begin with a process,’ he said.’I am not talking about having peace tomorrow but about getting into a new track. And I think that’s exactly what Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and the Saudis are saying.’