JERUSALEM – Top Iran experts in the U.S. and in Israel are warning President Biden that his administration’s strategy of de-escalation and containment targeting the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism – the Islamic Republic of Iran – has failed and America needs to reestablish deterrence against Tehran as fears of the regime obtaining a nuclear device grow.

Alarming reports about Iran moving at an astonishingly fast pace to possess a nuclear weapon have emerged since last month.

In December, Reuters reported that a confidential IAEA report released to member states said it had ‘increased its production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous output reduction from mid-2023.’ Reuters also said in its report ‘that Iran is enriching to up to 60%, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, at its Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) in its sprawling Natanz complex and at its Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), which is dug into a mountain.’

In a report titled ‘How quickly could Iran make nuclear weapons today?’ published earlier this month by David Albright, a physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, stated, ‘The long pole in the tent of building nuclear weapons is essentially complete. Iran can quickly make enough weapon-grade uranium for many nuclear weapons, something it could not do in 2003.’ Albright said Iran had a ‘crash nuclear weapons program’ up until 2003, which it then changed to a ‘more dispersed nuclear weapons effort.’

In his report, Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, wrote, ‘Today, it would need only about a week to produce enough for its first nuclear weapon. It could have enough weapon-grade uranium for six weapons in one month, and after five months of producing weapon-grade uranium, it could have enough for 12.’

Asked by Fox News Digital about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a State Department spokesperson said, ‘As the President and the Secretary have made clear, the United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. We continue to use a variety of tools in pursuit of that goal, and all options remain on the table. As the Secretary has said, we always prefer diplomacy to achieve that goal, but given Iran’s nuclear escalations and its failure to cooperate with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], unfortunately we are far away from anything like that right now.’

Gabriel Noronha, a former U.S. Department State adviser on Iran, told Fox News Digital, ‘Biden’s hope has been to bribe Iran not to advance its nuclear program through economic concessions and non-enforcement of sanctions. Iran advanced its nuclear program anyway and pocketed the extra revenue from oil sales to increase funding to its terror proxies. We have had zero wins on the Iran file in the past three years, but seen their strength return from their weakened state during the policy of maximum pressure.’

In addition to the nuclear fears, critics worry about Iran’s proxies disrupting the world’s economy. The lack of counterattacks against the regime has compounded the dangers for international navigation in the vital Red Sea passage, which is linked to Israel’s port of Eilat and Egypt’s Suez Canal, argue experts. 

The U.S. and the U.K. on Friday and Saturday launched pinpoint air strikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen, whose slogan is: ‘Allah is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.’

‘The United States needs to restart a diplomatic pressure campaign to have nations around the world place terror sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as its proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Dozens of countries in the West have not sanctioned these groups and are, accordingly, places where these terror groups can fundraise and conduct activities without appropriate scrutiny,’ Noronha said.

The Trump administration listed the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. However, after Biden entered the White House, he quickly delisted the Houthis as a terrorist entity in February 2021. 

When asked last week if the Houthis are a terrorist group, he said, ‘I think they are,’ but did not state if he plans re-designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Houthi leaders claim their goal is to stop Israel’s campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza and permit aid to reach Gaza. Yet the Houthis have launched missile attacks against Saudi Arabian oil installations and its cities over the years. 

Saudi Arabia – ostensibly sensing U.S. weakness against Iran and the Houthis – is an important American ally in the Middle East but has started to drift out of Washington’s orbit toward American adversaries during the Biden presidency. 

Iran has been a zealous supporter of Hamas and has provided missiles to the terror organization and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

Noronha, who is also a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), said, ‘The United States needs to reinstate a campaign of maximum economic pressure against the Iranian regime to cut off its ability to finance and support its terror proxies. Oil sales are the lifeblood of the regime’s terror funding, and the U.S. should start enforcing sanctions aggressively as the U.S. did from 2018-2020. Instead, the Biden administration has admitted it is looking the other way in the misplaced hope that it will help ‘de-escalate’ the tensions in the Middle East.’

Noronha is one of many veteran Middle East experts urging Biden’s administration to tackle Iran’s clerical regime with more economic pressure and force.

Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, an Israeli intelligence and security expert who is now a senior researcher at the Israeli Defense Security Forum, told Fox News Digital the Biden administration ‘should realize that this war is about their national security and global status as it is about the safety of American and Western citizens, and that sticking to the old strategy will eventually tempt Iran to break out for a nuclear weapon. Therefore, they should force Iran and its proxies to stop their violence and charge them with a much heavier price.’

The State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘We take the Iranian threat very seriously overall, as a total package, and we are committed to confronting the full range of Iran’s problematic behaviors, from its human rights abuses to its advancement of its nuclear program, to its support for terrorism and lethal plotting.’

The spokesperson added, ‘Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and a serial human rights abuser. We are joined by a broad cross-section of like-minded partners in confronting all the threats and challenges to security emanating from Iran. And our policy is focused on practical ways to counter these threats. That said, we are constantly evaluating our approach to Iran and finding additional ways to add pressure.’

The Trump administration introduced a policy of maximum pressure, a potent amalgamation of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and military strikes to reverse Iran’s malign activities. Proponents of Trump’s maximum pressure strategy argue it deterred Iranian jingoism and terrorism and the Middle East was more stable during the 2016-2020 period. The Biden administration favors a path of diplomacy to influence a change in Iran’s behavior.

Fox News Digital sent numerous press queries to Iran’s U.N. Permanent Mission in New York and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.

Reuters contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM — For the past three months, almost on a daily basis, Israeli ground troops fighting inside the war-weary Gaza Strip have been sending missives and images of tunnel shafts or underground complexes, including weapons dispensaries or bunkers, discovered beneath homes, schools, mosques and hospitals. 

In some cases, the tunnels are simple warrens enabling Hamas fighters to ambush Israeli soldiers; in others, the shafts are vast, elaborate creations replete with elevators, electricity and full ventilation systems. 

Some are even equipped with bedrooms, bathrooms and dining rooms, as well as command centers for Hamas to carry out its ongoing military operation against Israel. In one of those command centers, the IDF uncovered a video of Hamas’ Southern Brigade Commander, Mohammed Sinwar, brother of the group’s top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, driving a car through a broad underground passage. 

According to Israeli military estimates shared with Fox News Digital, Hamas, the Islamic terror group that sparked the war with Israel, has spent tens of millions of dollars — and the last 16 years as it governed Gaza — designing, digging and cementing an entire subterranean system rivaling London’s Underground or Paris’s Metro.

A report sent by IDF troops Thursday said it was likely Hamas ‘used more than 6,000 tons of concrete and 1,800 tons of metal to build hundreds of miles of underground infrastructure.’   

While the existence of what Israelis refer to as the ‘Gaza Metro,’ which Palestinians call ‘Lower Gaza,’ has been well known about for years, with Hamas leaders even boasting about it, the question remains how, in one of the world’s most poverty-stricken territories, which relies largely on aid from U.N. agencies, regional and Western powers, the terror group had the financial means to invest in such an intricate and expansive terror tunnel network.

‘I don’t know if anybody knows exactly how much money Hamas spent on building this tunnel system,’ Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, told Fox News Digital. 

Darshan-Leitner, whose 2017 book ‘Harpoon’ takes a deep dive into how terror groups, including Hamas, find their funding, said she did not believe that at this stage even the IDF understands the extent of Hamas’ underground metropolis.

‘Every day they are surprised to find another tunnel; they are surprised by its length, its complexity, how many floors it has, how wide it is. I don’t think they have the whole picture yet,’ she said.

She added that building such an elaborate system would likely have cost ‘tens of millions of dollars, if not more. The question is where did the money come from?’ 

As the governing body in Gaza, Darshan-Leitner said a large bulk of Hamas’ funds were levied from the Strip’s 2.2 million residents via ordinary taxes, even as aid agencies such as the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA; the Palestinian Authority, which governs Palestinians in the West Bank; and regional powers like Qatar provided crucial humanitarian services or built key infrastructure projects in the coastal enclave. 

‘Hamas took taxes from its residents and let others pay for everything that, as a government, it was supposed to take care of,’ Darshan-Leitner said. She described how for most of the past two decades, Qatar supplied oil and funded humanitarian projects, the PA covered the costs of electricity, water, health and education, while UNRWA – including with funding from the U.S. – took care of a wide variety of needs for some 75% of the population considered refugees. 

‘Hamas does not need to pay a dime for the population. Everything is taking care of by others,’ she said. ‘This allows them to use their money for military purposes.’ 

Juliette Touma, director of communications for UNRWA, told Fox News Digital the agency had no knowledge that its activities, which she said were mandated by the U.N. General Assembly, enabled Hamas the freedom to build the tunnels. 

‘We are a humanitarian United Nations agency,’ she said. ‘We provide, through UNRWA staff, screened and scrutinized humanitarian assistance to people. There is no third party.’ 

However, Hamas leaders have admitted to taking advantage of the fact that the U.N. and others care for the civilians to build a vast tunnel network beneath the enclave. In a recent interview, Qatari-based Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said the reason Hamas built no bomb shelters for Gaza’s population — only tunnels for Hamas fighters to hide and fight — was because it was the U.N.’s responsibility to ‘protect’ the majority of Gaza’s population. 

Funding the tunnel project from inflated taxation and minimal governing responsibility, however, forms just a small portion of Hamas’ terror income, Dr. Ronnie Shaked, a researcher on Palestinian Affairs at the Truman Institute at Hebrew University, told Fox News Digital. 

He said the U.S-designated terror group, like other Islamic organizations in the region, was closely aligned with Iran and clandestinely received millions of dollars a year, as well as weapons and military training from Tehran.

‘It is all part of an Iranian doctrine,’ said Shaked, a former senior correspondent and commentator on Palestinian Affairs for the popular Hebrew daily Yedioth Aharanoth and author of a book studying the rise of Hamas within Palestinian society.

He said Hamas had not only invested billions of dollars in building the tunnels but also devoted a huge amount of manpower and effort to create an underground city, where the top Hamas leaders have been hiding for most of the past 100 days. 

‘In order to create a tunnel that is around 400 km (250 miles) over 15 years, then you need millions of dollars. You also need tools and tens of thousands of workers to dig and find ways to remove all the sand and dust from inside the tunnels,’ he said. ‘Then there’s the electrical system, ventilation system and special machinery needed to build it all.’ 

Shaked said designing such tunnels and mapping them out in a coastal territory like the Gaza Strip would also have required top-notch engineers who could contend with the unique topography and proximity to the sea, as well as designers mapping out complex routes beneath the densely populated enclave. 

According to the former journalist, Hamas’ tunnel project began in the early 2000s with underground passageways used to smuggle goods from Egypt into the enclave. The terror group quickly moved on to attack tunnels snaking beneath the border with Israel, which were used most notably in 2006 when Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was attacked and kidnapped back to Gaza. At that same time, Hamas also started creating its complex network of tunnels beneath the homes, schools and medical centers of its own people.

While a large part of the covert funding came from Iran, Shaked also noted that, over the years, Qatar was also directly involved in sending millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip. In the early days, much of the funding arrived in cash-filled suitcases, first smuggled into Gaza via Egypt. But, later, after a special Mossad unit tasked with tracking and thwarting the flow of money to Hamas was disbanded, it arrived as part of a special arrangement with Israel. 

Beginning in 2018, Qatar’s Special Envoy to Gaza, Mohammed Al Emadi, was permitted to enter the Strip and hand-deliver millions of dollars in cash meant for humanitarian projects. Now, it appears that money too went straight into the hands of Hamas. 

‘In recent years, instead of fighting the terror financing, Israel began to allow money to flow into Gaza, including enabling Qatar to give the cash straight to Hamas,’ Darshan-Leitner said. She described an official Israeli policy aimed at keeping the Palestinian leadership — Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank — divided and therefore preventing the creation of a cohesive Palestinian state. 

‘Israel also thought that if they gave money to Hamas and if they allowed Palestinians workers to enter Israel — if they allowed the people in Gaza just a little bit better quality of life — then they would have no reason to terrorize Israel,’ she said.

That plan backfired Oct. 7 when thousands of highly trained Hamas terrorists stormed across the border massacring some 1,200 Israelis on army bases, in their homes and at a music festival in the area. That attack initiated the current war, and now Israeli forces are working hard to dismantle Hamas’ underground terror threat and locate more than 130 Israeli nationals who it believes are being held hostage in the tunnels. 

Brig. Gen. (Retired) Yaakov Nagel, Israel’s former acting national security adviser and now a senior research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Hamas built ‘a full city beneath a city.’

‘We knew about the tunnels, but we didn’t know the width, the depth or the length of them,’ he said. ‘People estimated there was about 200 kilometers [125 miles], but it now looks like there’s thousands of kilometers.

‘In some places, there are three layers of tunnels. And in other places it is wide enough to drive a jeep,’ Nagel said. He noted it was clear a large chunk of the Qatari money meant to help Gaza civilians rebuild the strip following a previous round of fighting in 2014 ‘went to the terrorist group’s programs, its tunnels, its missiles, its weapons production sites and into the pockets of corrupt leaders.’ 

Before Oct. 7, he said, the military’s focus was only on destroying the tunnels that crossed the border into Israeli territory. Following the 2014 war — and mass border protests in Gaza in 2018 — Israel ramped up its border defense system, investing $1 billion on an underground barrier to block those tunnels and develop new intelligence technology above ground to monitor what was happening on the other side. 

‘Unfortunately, we now know it was a mistake because it pushed them to attack the weakest part of our defense, the one that relied solely on technology,’ said Nagel. ‘We had the intelligence, but we did not fully understand or digest it. So, when 3,000 terrorists forced their way into Israel in 33 places along the border using heavy machinery, there were not enough people on our side of the border to physically stop them.’

The surprise attack and now the surprises that the Israeli military is revealing inside Gaza are among the reasons, he said, that Israel is pushing for greater control of the Strip once the war is over. 

‘What we are dealing with now is so big, and it will be a lot of work to dismantle it all,’ Nagel said. ‘If Israel is not inside in the future, then it can’t control what is happening. And that is why Israel favors having greater control over Gaza the day after the war — so we don’t encounter any more surprises.’ 

The 2024 election cycle is in full swing, with presidential hopefuls working tirelessly to gain the American public’s vote. Since former President Donald Trump announced a second-term run for president in November 2022, he has been speaking at events and rallies across the country to win the public’s vote, first against fellow candidates vying for the Republican nomination. 

During the speeches Trump has given so far in this election cycle, he has spoken about many concerns weighing on American’s minds going into 2024, such as the economy, immigration policies and abortion laws.

Several GOP presidential hopefuls like Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie, the latter of whom just dropped out of the race, have spoken about the former president during their own campaigns, expressing their disfavor.

Trump has faced a lot of legal trouble during this campaign run with the four criminal indictments he faces. This includes a classified records case and the Jan. 6 election interference case.  

Toward the beginning of 2024, much of Trump’s campaigning has been focused on states like Iowa and New Hampshire, where the first caucuses and primary in the nation occur, respectively.

The Israeli military says it killed four militants attempting to cross Israel’s northern border from Lebanon on Sunday.

The incident comes as Israel’s tensions with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group operating in Lebanon, continue to spike. IDF soldiers patrolling the border encountered the militant group, who immediately began firing at the Israelis.

‘During the exchanges of fire, IDF forces conducted artillery and mortar fire toward the area,’ the military said in a statement.

All four militants were killed in the exchange.

Hezbollah terrorists have launched missiles and rockets into Israel for months, showing support for Hamas amid Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Those attacks have not typically involved the infiltration of personnel across Israel’s border.

The move comes as both Israel and Hezbollah have threatened launching an all-out war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government will not hesitate to protect Israel, and Hezbollah officials have made similar declarations following Israeli strikes on its terror cells.

Senior Biden adviser Amos Hochstein visited Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday to meet with officials in an effort to prevent Israeli-Hezbollah tensions from spilling over.

A senior Hezbollah commander said last week the terrorist organization does not want an expanded war with Israel, but attacks on Israeli targets have continued.

‘Hezbollah made a serious mistake about us in 2006, and is doing so again now. It thinks that we are weak as a spiderweb, and now sees what kind of spider we are,’ Netanyahu said while visiting soldiers at the northern border. ‘It sees here enormous power, national unity, and determination to do whatever is necessary to bring security back to the north, and I tell you that this is my policy.’

‘We naturally prefer that there be no large scale conflict, but that will not stop us,’ he added. ‘We have given Hezbollah an example of what happened to its friends in the south, and that is what will happen here in the north. We will do anything to bring back security.’

Reuters contributed to this report

A wild video out of the U.K. shows two neighbors fighting over gardening tools, and one man left with a wound to his head that needed to be glued shut, according to local reports. 

A pair of neighbors, ​​Dean Nicholas and Paul Benton, got into a fight outside their homes in the Ashby Close cul-de-sac in Northamptonshire in 2021, which resulted in Nicholas landing in court years later, according to the Mirror.  

Video captured by another neighbor shows Nicholas and Benton standing outside in their neighborhood in July 2021, before Nicholas allegedly threw a pair of pruning clippers at Benton’s head. 

‘You’re f—ing mad,’ Nicholas shouted at Benton as he held the clippers and another pair of gardening shears, the Mirror reported. 

‘Calm down. I can’t believe you’ve just done that,’ Benton responds after Nicholas launched the clippers at Benton’s head. 

Nicholas is seen heading back to his home before turning around to continue yelling at Benton. 

‘You came out here f—ing with that thing,’ Benton said, referring to a gardening tool Nicholas was holding. ‘You almost gave me a f—ing heart attack, man.’

‘I was taking it into my back garden,’ Nicholas responded. 

Prosecutors said the incident unfolded after Benton was in his garden and noticed Nicholas was sitting in his car and called him over. 

‘Mr. Benton noticed the defendant sitting in his car. He beckoned him over. There have been some issues before that have angered the defendant. The defendant went into his front door and picked up a large metal bar of about a metre in length,’ prosecutor Jonathan Stone said, according to the Mirror. 

Stone said that Nicholas also picked up a pair of pruning clippers, later allegedly throwing them at Benton’s head. 

‘He then picked up some secateurs and threw them at the complainant’s head. He was shouting at the complainant and accused him of attacking him. The complainant was heard saying he just wanted to go back into his garden,’ Stone said. 

Benton said the injury to his head required doctors at Kettering General Hospital to glue the wound. 

‘It’s fair to say they’re not friends, but there’ve been no further incidents,’ Nicholas’ attorney said, according to SWNS. 

Nicholas appeared in court this month, where he denied inflicting bodily harm but was found guilty. He was sentenced to 45 weeks in prison, and the judge noted he had a ‘good chance’ of rehabilitation following the incident. 

Nicholas was also ordered to pay Benton £280, or roughly $356, in compensation.

FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign spent thousands on luxury hotels last year despite her team’s claim it runs ‘a tight ship’ and stays in ‘affordable’ lodging.

According to Haley’s third-quarter disbursements filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), her campaign spent over $11,000 on high-end, four- and five-star hotels. 

That included stays at The Breakers, a luxurious hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Wave Resort in Long Branch, New Jersey.

Other hotel expenditures listed in the report include stays at a high-end Fairmont Hotel in Texas, an Omni Hotel, a J.W. Marriott and multiple stays at the upscale Hotel Fort Des Moines in Iowa. 

The numerous hotel bills contrast with the frugality touted by Haley’s campaign and her comments during the most recent primary debate between her and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, when she blasted him for what she described as blowing through millions of dollars on his campaign.

‘He spent more on private planes than commercial. I flew commercial. I stayed in Residence Inns. We went and saved our money,’ Haley said. ‘We made sure we spent it right because you have to understand it’s not your money. It’s other people’s money. And you have to know how to handle it.’ 

Haley’s campaign made similar claims in multiple fundraising emails sent last July, including one that said it was ‘being smart with every dollar.’

‘We run a tight ship at Team Haley. Supporters like you contribute your hard-earned money to elect Nikki, and we make sure to spend that money wisely,’ the email said. 

‘Nikki’s an accountant, not a lawyer. When Nikki and the team travel to New Hampshire and Iowa, they’re flying on a lot of Spirit and JetBlue flights. When they stay in hotels, they’re not staying in luxury suites, they’re staying at a lot of Residence Inns,’ it added.

Another email stated that the campaign’s road team wasn’t ‘out there renting private planes like some campaigns. You’re flying a lot of Spirit and JetBlue.’ 

‘We’re getting you out to New Hampshire, Iowa, and wherever else you need to go with the most affordable option we can find. And when you all land, you’re driving the rest of the staff around in a rental car. You’re not staying in luxury suites. You’re staying at affordable hotels,’ it said.

‘Our team is lean and mean. We track every penny coming in and out of our campaign because that was the expectation set on day one.’

In addition to the high-end hotels, Haley’s FEC report also included stays at lower-rated hotels, such as Residence Inn and Hampton Inn, but those stays were not included in the total amount spent on those classified as luxury.

‘As an accountant, Nikki Haley understands the importance of sticking to a budget,’ Haley’s campaign told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s what our campaign did, making smart decisions about staff size, TV spending and travel. The proof is in the pudding: This is now a two-person race with Nikki rising, Trump dropping and DeSantis fading fast after lighting $150 million on fire.’

A new technology company called RallyRight, LLC recently launched a national roll-out of products it hopes will give conservative candidates a fundraising and voter turnout advantage in the upcoming 2024 elections and beyond.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, RallyRight founder and former Republican Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler said her inspiration for the company stemmed from her run-off election loss in 2021, as well as her desire to flip the script on Democrats, who she said have ‘outmanned, outnumbered and outraised’ Republicans in other recent elections.

She hopes the roll-out of the company’s two major platforms, DonateRight and FieldRight, will help other conservatives in swing Senate seats and House districts avoid the multiple back-to-back losses they’ve experienced in Georgia.

‘I’m an entrepreneur at heart, and I’ve been a long-time GOP activist, so this really combines all my passions and, really, learning from 2020,’ Loeffler told Fox. ‘I thought to myself, we’re doing things in politics that we’d never do in business. So I vowed to fix it when I had the opportunity. And that’s what I’ve done.’

Her model was to first build up an organization like Greater Georgia — a non-profit she started in 2021 that aims to register more conservatives to vote — which she said ensured the proper advocacy, election integrity and grassroots support was in place. Then, RallyRight’s technology would ‘fortify the infrastructure’ needed to win up and down the ballot.

DonateRight is a payment technology platform designed to help candidates maximize their fundraising, and FieldRight is a gig economy app that helps campaigns enhance their voter outreach programs through advanced mapping algorithms, and canvassing contractor network matching.

‘For conservatives, it’s really designed from a cost efficiency perspective that it’s available for small campaigns, which are too often overlooked, and it’s feature rich and scalable for very large national campaigns,’ Loeffler said.

She said both platforms saw ‘tremendous early success’ when deployed on a smaller scale during the 2023 off-year election cycle, and helped a number of smaller, municipal and state-level candidates have the resources they needed to conduct fundraising, know where their persuadable voters were located, and even reach Spanish-speaking voters.

‘That’s the kind of flexibility you can have at a fraction of the price of a traditional doors program, and it can be stood up in a matter of a few days,’ she said.

Loeffler stressed the need for conservatives to shift from a defensive mindset to an offensive one, and that it would require being active in the field and meeting voters where they are.

‘Both of these products are designed to really break the left’s full court press, and that’s where we get back on offense, and we start scoring against them,’ she said.

When asked what impact she saw RallyRight having on the 2024 election and in the future, Loeffler argued that narrower margins of victory meant it was imperative to seize the controllable factors about a campaign’s performance, especially in the wake of a ‘two-tiered justice system playing out before our eyes.’

‘We have to have the funds. We have to have the resources. And what I did was design tools that put those resources in the hands of more campaigns to win more races up and down the ticket, because if we don’t push back on the left’s lead and technology, we’re going to get further and further behind, not just on fundraising, but on persuasion, advocacy and turnout,’ she said.

Vivek Ramaswamy responded to Donald Trump’s scathing personal attack, saying that he would not return his comments with ‘friendly fire’ or criticize the former president, but warned voters to ‘open their eyes.’

‘Yes, I saw President Trump’s Truth Social post. It’s an unfortunate move by his campaign advisors, I don’t think friendly fire is helpful,’ Ramaswamy wrote in a late Saturday X post.  

‘Donald Trump was the greatest President of the 21st century, and I’m not going to criticize him in response to this late attack,’ the biotech multimillionaire continued.

The ‘America first’ campaigner, who has long been complimentary of the former president, defended Trump’s accusations that he was ‘not MAGA’ arguing that he has ‘defended him at every step.’

‘I’m worried for Trump. I’m worried for our country. I’ve stood up against the persecutions against Trump, and I’ve defended him at every step,’ Ramaswamy said. 

‘I showed up at the Miami courthouse in solidarity following his first federal indictment. I filed a FOIA demand to the Biden DOJ. I submitted an amicus brief this week with the U.S. Supreme Court calling on them to overturn Colorado’s ruling,’ Ramaswamy continued. ‘I pledged to remove myself from Maine’s & Colorado’s primary ballots if they remove Trump, calling on DeSantis and Haley to do the same.’

Ramaswamy continued, attacking presidential candidate Nikki Haley, calling her the left’s ‘puppet’ and encouraging voters to ‘open their eyes.’

‘But we have to open our eyes. Last time it was a man-made pandemic & Big Tech election interference,’ he wrote. 

‘Now, the same billionaires funding the lawsuits against Trump are the ones trying to prop up Nikki Haley. The same MSM blasting Trump is lavishing praise on Nikki,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘They want to narrow this to a two-horse race between Trump & Haley, eliminate Trump (one way or other), & trot their puppet into the White House.’

‘We can’t fall for that trap. 1 year from now, we won’t look back and say we were shocked that it happened. We’ll kick ourselves for not stopping it,’ he said.

The GOP presidential candidate concluded his response by arguing that his ‘America First’ movement did not start in 2016, but in 1776.

‘Our movement must live on. America-First didn’t start in 2016. It started in 1776,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘We owe it to our Founding Fathers to do the right thing for our country. I want to save Trump & to save this country. Let’s do it together.’

‘You won’t hear any friendly fire from me,’ he said.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ramaswamy’s campaign spoke about the potential of Trump being removed from the presidential ballot.

‘Just because it’s wrong doesn’t mean it won’t happen & we owe it to our nation to take America-First forward,’ Ramaswamy’s campaign said.

Ramaswamy’s lengthy statement came after Trump and his team made direct, public attacks against the pharmaceutical entrepreneur.

‘Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, ‘the best President in generations,’ etc.,’ Trump wrote in a Saturday evening Truth Social post. ‘Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks. Very sly.’

Trump said that Vivek is ‘not MAGA’ and encouraged his supporters to not get ‘duped.’ 

‘A vote for Vivek is a vote for the ‘other side’ — don’t get duped by this. Vote for ‘TRUMP,’ the former president said. ‘Don’t waste your vote! Vivek is not MAGA.’

Nikki Haley’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Anti-Israel protesters and rioters gathered outside the White House on Saturday night, with some demonstrators damaging security fencing and hurling objects at police.

The demonstrators were heard chanting ‘Ceasefire Now’ and ‘Free, Free Palestine,’ with many waving Palestinian flags. ‘Yemen, Yemen make us proud / Turn another ship around,’ was also recited at the demonstration, hours after strikes were launched against the Houthis in Yemen.

The U.S. Secret Service told Fox News Digital that some fences were damaged outside the White House, and that staff members and journalists were ‘relocated’ as a result. The White House also said on Saturday that President Biden is currently at Camp David.

‘During the demonstration near the White House complex Jan. 13, a portion of the anti-scale fencing that was erected for the event sustained temporary damage,’ the statement read. ‘The issues were promptly repaired on site by U.S. Secret Service support teams.’

‘As a precaution, some members of the media and staff in proximity to Pennsylvania Avenue were temporarily relocated while the issue was being addressed,’ the statement continued. ‘The Secret Service made no arrests associated with the march and there was no property damage to the White House or adjacent buildings.’

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith blasted illegal behavior from protesters in a press release on Saturday night.

‘The right to peacefully protest is one of the cornerstones of our democracy, and the Metropolitan Police Department has long supported those who visit our city to demonstrate safely,’ Smith’s statement read. ‘However, violence, destructive behavior, and criminal activities are not tolerated.’

The police chief added that some officers were assaulted by the demonstrators in Lafayette Park.

‘While a majority of today’s demonstration remained peaceful, there were instances of illegal and destructive behavior in Lafayette Park, including items being thrown at our officers,’ Smith explained. ‘We are supporting our partners at the United States Park Police as they investigate and hold those found responsible accountable for their actions.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.