“Evil” only respects “unyielding strength,” the GOP presidential frontrunner says, in a new advert featuring the conflict in Gaza
A fresh campaign advert for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has capitalized on his recent vow to spill a “gallon” of US enemies’ blood for each drop of American blood spilled. A short clip that has since been widely shared on social media starts with the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and retaliation by Israel.
“History shows very plainly that evil only respects one thing: unyielding strength,” the GOP presidential frontrunner can be heard saying in the video. Trump then vows that, once he is “back in the White House,” he will make sure that the US’ enemies know that if they “spill one drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours.”
The ad also claimed that Trump “destroyed” the infamous Islamic State (IS, former ISIS) terrorist group that once controlled vast swaths of land in Syria and Iraq, and “kept the Middle East at peace” and America out of “endless wars” through a policy of “strength.”
The ad also accuses the administration of the current US president, Joe Biden, of giving “billions of taxpayers’ money to Iran,” which, in turn, supposedly helped Hamas militants plan their October 7 attack on Israel.
The Biden administration issued sanctions waivers to enable banks in South Korea to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds as part of a prisoner swap deal earlier this year. Tens of billions of dollars owed to Iran for oil and other exports have since 2018 been frozen in banks around the world under US sanctions, when Trump, who was US president at the time, unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
Tehran also denied helping the Gaza-based militant group plan its attack on Israel in the wake of the assault. The US media later accused Iran of training some 500 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters roughly a month before the attack.
Trump first spoke about the readiness to potentially “spill a gallon” of US enemies’ blood in late October at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference, as the Israeli military campaign against Gaza was well underway. At that time, he also vowed to cancel student visas for “Hamas sympathizers on college campuses,” while claiming that the US college campuses “are being taken over.”
The Israeli military campaign that was launched in response to the Hamas attack that claimed around 1,200 mostly-civilian lives, has already led to more than 11,000 deaths among Palestinians in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.
Under the Trump administration, the US moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The then president also came up with what he called the “deal of the century” – a Middle East peace proposal that proposed the creation of an “independent” Palestinian state in the form of multiple enclaves within Israeli territory. Both moves were hailed by Israel and drew strong condemnation from the Muslim world.
