Trump's 'shameful' Israel rant could set off rift with his evangelical supporters: expert

Donald Trump's decision to make off-the-cuff remarks about the invasion of Israel by Hamas during a speech in West Palm Beach earlier this week will likely come back to haunt his bid for the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination, according to an expert.

That is the opinion of former prosecutor Dennis Aftergut in his latest column for the Bulwark, where he claimed the former president stepped into a minefield of his own making by bizarrely praising terrorist group Hezbollah while at the same time making ugly remarks about Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

On the same morning that CNN was reporting that Trump's handlers are doing damage control over the remarks that host John Avlon called "incoherent" and Israeli communications minister Shlomo Karhi called "shameful," Aftergut wrote that the former president made a huge unforced error.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?for office?

Of note, he suggested, is how Trump's evangelical supporters – most of whom are longtime uncritical supporters of Israel – will react to the former president attacking Netanyahu just because he has a personal grudge.

"Not only did he fail to recognize the horror of Hamas’s war crimes, something that even staunch critics of Israel’s treatment of civilians in Gaza have done. Trump actually went out of his way to praise Hezbollah, Hamas’s Jordan-based military counterpart," he wrote, before adding, "So why would Trump choose this moment, after a horrific terrorist attack, to make a charge relating to a three-year old event, kicking his onetime ally, Netanyahu, while he is down? It’s no mystery: Netanyahu praised Joe Biden on Tuesday for his strong support for Israel."

According to the attorney, Trump's narcissism has once again turned him into his own worst enemy.

Which, in turn, handed Trump's opponents a new cudgel to use against him.

"No doubt we’ll be seeing 30-second ads from the Biden campaign and pro-Biden PACs replaying the clip of Trump expressing admiration for Hezbollah," he predicted, before suggesting, "But the potential harm to Trump goes beyond that."

"His remarks may create something of a rift between segments of his supporters. Praise for Hezbollah and criticism of Netanyahu might appeal to the antisemitic faction of his base, but a larger segment, the evangelical Christians who love Israel, will likely find his remarks offensive," he wrote.

Add to that, he wrote, Trump's remarks likely won't draw independent voters into his camp as they are probably just as appalled by his comments as they are by the slaughter of Israeli men, women and children.

You can read more here.