Former President Donald Trump will secure the Republican nomination for president by March 19 because of his huge lead in the polls, his campaign said on Monday.
The Trump team believes Trump he will have 1,478 delegates just two weeks after the crucial Super Tuesday primaries, a senior aide said.
That would be more than enough delegates needed to win a majority of the total of 2,429 delegates who will select a nominee at the Republican National Convention, set for July in Milwaukee.
The former president has been ahead by closest rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis by as much as 50 points in some polls and is still dominating in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Former President Donald Trump will secure the Republican nomination for president by March 19 because of his huge lead in the polls, his campaign said on Monday
Ron DeSantis, flanked by wife Casey (center) and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (left), is still trying to close the gap to Trump with just 27 days until Iowa
Even though his opponents have closed the gap, they are still far behind the 77-year-old seeking his second term in the White House.
During the last competitive Republican presidential primary, in 2016, Trump did not formally win the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination until late May.
The campaign aide made the prediction as Trump tore into President Biden Monday for being the ‘worst ally’ to Israel – as Biden comes under fire for his administration’s difficulty pressuring Israel to limit the impact of its war against Hamas on civilians in Gaza.
‘Biden has been the worst ally to Israel that anyone’s ever had, because he allowed Iran to become rich again,’ Trump said Monday.
He laced into Biden’s foreign policy generally during off-the-cuff comments at Trump National Golf Course in West Palm Beach, where his campaign team was briefing reporters about his effort to regain the White House, and where Trump pledged not to let his primary polling lead slip away due to excessive caution.
Trump said ‘the worst president ever – ever – for Israel is Biden because he allowed Iran to get rich.’
‘And one thing I learned about Biden is whatever he says, do the opposite, because he’s the worst person I’ve ever seen on foreign policy,’ Trump said. He was asked about growing pressure on the Biden administration over the war amid Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Israel Monday for talks.
Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu is also facing internal pressures after the Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages inside Gaza days ago.
Campaign officials limited the comments that reporters were able to put on the record, during a brief Q&A that commenced when Trump dropped into a conference room after playing a round of golf, sporting his signature red ‘Make American Great Again’ cap.
‘Just shot a 71 so I can’t be cognitively impaired,’ Trump joked.
He also commented on his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s fate, days after a Washington, DC jury turned in a $148 million award for defaming two Georgia election workers during Trump’s the election overturn effort in the state.
‘I think it’s so sad, what’s happened to Rudy,’ Trump said in response to a question from DailyMail.com. ‘He’s a great patriot he’s the greatest mayor in the history of New York. I think it’s a very, very unfair situation.’
Nikki Haley has also seen a surge in recent polls, and has leapfrogged DeSantis to second in some of the crucial early state surveys
Former President Trump tore into his predecessor, and vowed not to play ‘prevent defense’ in the primaries while sitting on a lead
He spoke while the administration is under pressure for Israel’s war on Hamas
He didn’t say whether he would provide any financial assistance to help Giuliani with staggering legal bills, while also serving as a defendant in other cases. The former New York mayor has vowed to appeal, and the judge in the case has the ability to try to adjust the award, which included punitive damages.
Trump’s comments came after a weekend where he spoke at a New Hampshire and doubled down on prior comments that immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country,’ despite critics calling the comments xenophobic.
At the event he also brought up approving comments from Hungary’s President Viktor Orban and quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin, after taking heat for his ‘dictator’ comments in a sit-down with Sean Hannity.
The comments drew a rebuke form the Anti Defamation League, and the White House slammed him for ‘echoing the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists.’
In his Israel comments, Trump referenced the scrapped Iran nuclear deal, and said Tehran lacked the financial influence during his tenure.
‘They were broke. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for Hezbollah. They had no money for anything they wanted to survive.’
He said Biden ‘allowed Iran to get rich’ and said Hamas was ‘out of business.’
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Israel in 2018 obtained intelligence showing that Hamas had amassed a financial portfolio valued a half a billion dollars, but that U.S. and Israeli intelligence had failed to act decisively on the information.
Trump is also looking ahead to Iowa, with the caucuses less than a month away. Polls show him leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by more than 30 points.
He said it looks like the campaign is ‘doing pretty well’ but ‘you never know, right?’
‘You know what it is to play a certain defense called prevent defense in the NFL? We won’t play prevent. … We don’t want to play prevent defense,’ he said – in reference to a conservative style of play that can sometimes lead to pulse-raising deep throws down the field when a team is sitting on a lead during the final minutes of a football game.
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