The President's Daily Brief
May 27th, 2025: Hamas Pulls A Ceasefire Bait-And-Switch & Western Green Light for Ukraine
27 May 2025
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Hamas announces support for a ceasefire proposal—but it turns out the U.S. never made the offer. We’ll explain what really happened. A new investigation exposes how the British government may have funneled millions to Hamas via UNICEF—and knew about it. Germany, France, the U.K., and the U.S. lift restrictions on Ukraine, allowing strikes deeper inside Russian territory. And in today’s Back of the Brief: North Korea arrests four officials after Kim Jong Un’s latest warship launch ends in public embarrassment. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold TriTails Premium Beef: Visit https://TryBeef.com/PDBfor 2 free Flat Iron steaks with your first box over $250 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Tuesday, the 27th of May. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We begin in Gaza, where Hamas just pulled a diplomatic sleight of hand, announcing support for a ceasefire proposal that the U.S. never actually made. We'll break it down.
Later in the show, a new investigation reveals that the British government may have been quietly funneling millions to Hamas through, well, UNICEF. Plus, a big win for Ukraine. Germany, France, the UK, and the US are all giving Kyiv the green light to strike deeper inside Russia.
And in today's Back of the Brief, heads are starting to roll, we knew they would, in North Korea after Kim Jong-un's prized new warship failed to launch in spectacular fashion. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. We'll start things off today with a bit of a confusing situation out of the Middle East, which of course means business as usual.
On Monday, a Palestinian official claimed that Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire proposal supposedly brokered by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. According to the official, the deal included a 70-day truce the staged release of 10 living Israeli hostages, and the return of several bodies. Five captives would be released at the start of the ceasefire, with the other five released on the final day.
It also reportedly called for a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, many of them serving lengthy sentences. Now, it sounded like a major breakthrough, the kind of deal that could pause or even end one of the most brutal conflicts in the region in recent memory. But, well, there's always a but, isn't there?
There's a problem. Hamas was trying to pull off, what do they call it in Arabic? The old razzle dazzle, or maybe that's Farsi. I'm not sure. As it turns out, the deal that Hamas said it was agreeing to, well, never existed. Shortly after Hamas made its announcement, Witkoff responded publicly and forcefully.
In a statement to Axios, he said, quote, What I have seen from Hamas is disappointing and completely unacceptable. An unnamed Israeli official quoted by Reuters was even more blunt, saying, quote, No responsible government could accept such an agreement. So you say to yourself, what's going on here? And, in fact, is the old razzle-dazzle how they say it in Arabic.
Some analysts believe this was a deliberate move by Hamas, an attempt to present themselves as reasonable negotiators while putting public pressure on Israel and the U.S. It also may have been, frankly, a stalling tactic. As we reported yesterday, Israel's ground invasion is escalating rapidly. Every regular army infantry and armored brigade has now been deployed inside Gaza.
We're also learning more about the Israeli military's long-term objectives in the enclave. On Sunday, Israeli commanders announced a plan to take control of 75% of the Gaza Strip within the next two months. The goal is to corner Hamas into just a sliver of the territory, about a quarter of the Gaza Strip, and eventually eliminate the group's ability to operate altogether.
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