New York University professor and historian Timothy Naftali scolded GOP strategist Lance Trover Saturday on CNN after being falsely accused of calling President Donald Trump a “fascist,” a debate centered around heated rhetoric in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing.

“I think the Democrats and Republicans both have to stop using apocalyptic language; when you use apocalyptic language, you're basically saying if the other side wins, it's over,” Naftali said, speaking on CNN’s “Table for Five.” “In other words, you're saying the stakes are so high, you should contemplate the kind of actions that we don't want people to contemplate.”

Much has been said in recent days over heated political rhetoric coming from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the wake of Kirk’s assassination on Wednesday. After being apprehended by law enforcement Friday, the suspected shooter was found to have engraved anti-fascist messages on bullet casings, messages that many Republicans have used to pin Kirk’s killing on Democrats’ rhetoric.

“I have seen it myself: elements of authoritarianism and of the authoritarian approach to government, which seem to emanate from the current White House... I think as an analyst you are responsible to say that,” Naftali said, before being cut off by Trover.

“So he's a fascist?” Trover interjected. “Say it! That's what you're basically saying!”

Naftali fiercely rejected Trover’s accusation, attempting to shout over Trover’s claims in a fiery exchange.

“Lance! My father survived a pogrom in Bucharest, [Romania] in World War II; I am very, very careful about how I use the term 'Nazism,’” Naftali said.

“Authoritarianism is something that can exist outside of the genocidal work of the Nazis. It is perfectly appropriate as an analyst to talk about authoritarian regimes, regimes that speak of elections in a way that suggests they don't really want them to happen, or that the ones that go the wrong way were actually flawed.”

“Please, Lance, today of all days, let us not worry about what people have called one side.”

Adding to Donald Trump’s problems that already include the Jeffrey Epstein files, his inability to end the Russia-Ukraine war after promising to do so immediately after taking office, he is now confronted with the same harsh economic news that dogged President Joe Biden.

According to a report from David Lynch of the Washington Post, the president has about 14 months to course-correct the economy or face the prospect that the Republican party will get blown out in the 2026 midterms if he doesn’t get prices down and employment up.

As Lynch wrote, “Consumer prices rose 2.9 percent over the past year, the fastest annual pace since January. Shopping for groceries, in particular, is becoming a traumatic experience,” before adding, “The combination of price pressures and employment worries is reminiscent of the double-whammy that kneecapped Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid last fall and threatens Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress in the 2026 elections.”

Should Republicans lose majority control of one or both of the House and the Senate, Trump will find himself handcuffed as a lame duck president for the last two years he is in the Oval Office, which has the White House concerned.

Despite the Trump White House claims that Biden’s economy was a “disaster” for workers, Lynch wrote, “what the new [job] numbers actually showed, economists said, was that the labor market last year was starting to downshift to a level where fewer new jobs were needed each month to prevent the unemployment rate from rising — a development that has intensified under Trump.”

According to former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein, “The problem with this affordability crisis is that every incumbent gets blamed for it, and not just here, but in lots of other countries as well.”

He then dryly added, “And that’s Trump’s problem now.”

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National security expert Juliette Kayyem slapped down GOP strategist Lance Trover Saturday after dismissing claims that only Democrats were engaged in the type of heated rhetoric that led to the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

Responding to a clip of Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) urging “to take the temperature down” on heated rhetoric, Trover said it was still an open question as to whether Democrats would actually follow suit, claiming that such rhetoric was “only coming from one side.”

“Of course there are [those] that just spend all their time whipping up their base, both right and left, I'm not going to disagree on that, but I heard the congressman on there saying 'we need to tone down the rhetoric,’” Trover said.

“I go back to what was on the bullet from this kid, 'fascism,' and that's only coming from one side currently in this debate, and it's on every placard and poster around the country. I think it's a valid question of are they going to live up to what they say they're going to do, with the 'Nazi' and the 'fascism' and the like?”

Anti-fascist messages were discovered to have been engraved on bullet casings belonging to Kirk’s suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, including “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “bella ciao,” an Italian anti-facist folk song theorized to have been written in protest of brutal working conditions imposed on agricultural workers.

Kayyem, who previously served as Massachusetts’ undersecretary for Homeland Security, immediately pushed back on Trover, casting doubt on the idea that Robinson’s motives for the killing were already evident.

As the two engaged in a heated back and forth, Kayyem regained control of the debate by declaring “this was my point, not yours!”

“The point is, who cares? A man was killed, and you have yet to say political violence is bad, period!” Kayyem said. “That's all the people want from the president! That's all, and they're getting this spin and this; stop counting! Because you're not going to define a perfect motive in this case, you're not going to define it.”