Watch: Trump Says You’ve Got to “Finish the Problem” in Gaza

Despite the uncommitted votes against Joe Biden in Michigan, and despite polls showing a majority of Americans support an immediate cease-fire and even ending arms exports to Israel, Donald Trump doesn’t think Israel’s actions are the problem.

Trump made a phone call to Fox & Friends Tuesday morning and gave an impromptu interview to hosts Lawrence Jones and Brian Kilmeade. After being asked whether he is “on board with the way the IDF is taking the fight in Gaza,” Trump responded, “You’ve got to finish the problem.”

“You had a horrible invasion, it took place, it would have never happened if I was president, by the way,” Trump began. He then went on to claim that “Iran was broke” during his presidency and would not have been able to send money to Hamas or Hezbollah.

He went further in claiming that “they wouldn’t have done it to me,” and that the invasion took place because of a lack of respect for Biden. Continuing on his rant, he claimed Russia wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine on his watch, either. In his mind, each of these conflicts wouldn’t have happened “if things went right” in 2020.

It’s not the first time Trump has said Russian President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine on his watch. Despite Trump’s assertions, however, even his own former advisers have criticized his dealings with Russia and Ukraine, claiming that the former president actually emboldened Putin.

Regarding Israel, Trump has softened his tone toward the country after he was forced to make an about-face from his initial remarks in October, when he said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “let us down” by failing to prevent the October 7 attacks. In any case, a Trump victory in November doesn’t seem likely to stem the continuing violence resulting from Israel’s war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of 31,052 Palestinians and about 1,139 people in Israel.

A Hitler-quoting, gay-bashing, conspiracy-flouting antisemite is on track to cinch the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination in the battleground state of North Carolina.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is up for election in the state’s primary election on Tuesday. He has so far pulled ahead by double-digit percentage points over his GOP opposition, Bill Graham, according to a February High Point University Survey Research Center poll.

That’s in spite of the fact that the Trump-endorsed candidate quoted Adolf Hitler in a 2014 Facebook post that normalizes the German dictator’s stance on racial pride.

“History who said it #1; ‘Pride in one’s own race—and that does not imply contempt for other races—is also a normal and healthy sentiment. I have never regarded the Chinese or the Japanese as being inferior to ourselves... They have the right to be proud of their past, just as we have the right to be proud of the civilization to which we belong,” the post (which is still up) read.

Then, at a Moms for Liberty summit in July, Robinson fervently defended his choice to quote the genocidal leader of the Nazi Party, implying that doing so without context is not akin to endorsing his words or actions.

“Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler, whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao, whether you’re talking about Stalin, whether you’re talking about Pol Pot, whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba, or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe; it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes,” Robinson said, adding, “It’s time for us to start teaching our children about the dirty, despicable, awful things that those Communist and socialist despots did in our history.”

Again, the Facebook post quoting Hitler is still up with none of this additional context.

Robinson has drawn immediate comparisons to Trump for his bombastic orations and loyal GOP following, and like Trump, he has a laundry list of controversies.

In other posts, Robinson has minimized the horrors of the Holocaust, claimed a “satanic marxist” had made the movie Black Panther to pull “shekels” out of Black audiences, likened women getting abortions to murderers, and derided gay people as “filth” and “maggots.”

He has also expressed archaic views about women’s role in society, telling a Charlotte-area church in 2022 that Christians are “called to be led by men.”

“God sent women out … when they had to do their thing, but when it was time to face down Goliath, [He] sent David. Not Davita, David,” Robinson said at the time.

And yet, Robinson’s gubernatorial win would turn the state’s executive branch—its last Democratic holdout—red, effectively locking Democrats out of a state they had once predicted would be their stronghold in the South.

Robinson’s likely opponent come November will be Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic favorite.

For conservatives, it can be difficult keeping up with the latest outrages. Yesterday, it was Chik-fil-A and Target. Today, the cultural criminal du jour is tortilla chip brand Doritos.

Yes, right-wingers are angry about nacho chips thanks to the chip brand’s Spain division partnership with transgender activist and singer Samantha Hudson, a native of the European country. Many on the right are calling for a boycott of Doritos, similar to the one of Bud Light, which became a target of conservatives and transphobes last year after hiring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador.

Notable right-wing accounts such as End Wokeness and Chaya Raichik (better known as Libs of TikTok) have gotten in on the action, claiming that Hudson has tweeted about abusing minors and has made pro-pedophile statements. Hudson claimed in a 2023 interview that she herself has been sexually abused.

Whether it’s Doritos, Frosted Flakes, Bud Light, or any number of businesses that decide to honor diversity and the LGBTQ+ community, the far right is running out of things to eat and places to shop these days, and even trying to start its own economy, with questionable results.

Hudson and Doritos Spain have not responded to the attacks.

Donald Trump is well on his way to replacing the conservative party with a “counterestablishment” of his own that, according to his family, has no room for dissenters.

With Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel on her way out the door, Trump’s allies are doing everything within their power to leverage the conservative election machine for the GOP front-runner’s sole benefit, even if he’s not yet the formal nominee. One key element for the takeover? The success of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who’s gunning to replace McDaniel in a power-sharing agreement that would have her split duties with North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley.

In an interview on Real America’s Voice, the 41-year-old Trump insisted that she was the only person loyal enough to the former president to be considered for the job—which she plans to use to transform the RNC into a Trump-electing machine.

“Anyone who is not on board with seeing Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president and America-loving patriots all the way down the ticket being supported by the RNC is welcome to leave because we are not playing games,” Lara Trump said.

“We have no time to waste,” she continued. “We have to ensure that every single penny of every dollar donated goes to causes that people care about. That’s part of the reason that I think I’m such a great fit for this: There’s no one more loyal to Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement than this person you’re looking at right here; than me.”

It’s not the first time that she’s cast the warning, insisting that the sole purpose and focus of the RNC should be reelecting her father-in-law.

“Every single penny will go to the number one and the only job of the RNC,” Trump told Newsmax last month. “That is electing Donald J. Trump as president of the United States and saving this country.”

Meanwhile, McDaniel’s tenure ends on March 8, putting a cap on a monthslong feud with Trump over her former endorser’s demand for “total loyalty.”

Donald Trump wants you to know that he is absolutely not having a hard time finding the money to pay his legal comeuppance and that he is still totally super, super rich.

The former president was fined $354 million for committing real estate–related fraud in New York. In order to appeal the decision, Trump must post a bond of the full amount plus interest—which has already reached more than $450 million, with an additional $112,000 tacked on per day.

“You have to come up with something like $400 million; how close are you to securing the bond or would you need for that?” asked Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday.

“I have a lot of money, I can do what I want to do, but this was a horrible, illegal decision,” Trump said. “This was a decision made up by a crooked judge, a 100 percent crooked clubhouse judge, a disgrace with an equally crooked attorney general, who campaigned on ‘I will get Trump,’ and we’re appealing that decision and we’ll see how we do.”

So far, the self-purported billionaire has attempted to pause the rapidly growing interest on the order with a $100 million bond in lieu of the full $465 million. That effort was roundly rejected by a New York appeals court judge last month, who did allow Trump to continue borrowing money.

Trump’s legal team is still working to appeal the entirety of the decision—but even that avenue would still require them to put nearly half a billion dollars into an escrow account with the court, or Trump could be hit with more fines or held in contempt.

“So you’re not worried about the money?” Kilmeade clarified.

“No, I don’t worry about money,” Trump snipped.

That’s good to know, because launching a sneaker campaign the day after getting hit with the legal penalty and flagging a fan-funded GoFundMe to help with his bills had definitely raised a lot of eyebrows.

Still, his former allies aren’t so quick to believe Trump, especially since he still owes an additional $88.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for sexually assaulting her and then defaming her twice in his rabid denials. He also owes $400,000 to The New York Times and has racked up thousands more over gag orders he’s violated amid all these trials. And in the realm of non–court ordered debts, Trump’s former right-hand man Rudy Giuliani claimed he still hasn’t been paid for the legal services he provided to the former president and is reportedly waiting on a sum of about $2 million.

“I mean, what is he going to do?” Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, told CNN on Thursday. “What, is he going to call like a J.G. Wentworth and say, ‘I need cash now’? How was he going to raise more than this half a billion?”

Trump has until March 25 to implement a stay on the fraud order, by which he would need to put up the money, assets, or an appeal bond to cover the $465 million disgorgement. Failing to do so could result in the seizure of Trump’s assets, warned New York Attorney General Letitia James.