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Rep. Cory Mills schooled fellow Floridian Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz Monday over former President Donald Trump's Middle East policy.

During an episode of his Firebrand podcast, Gaetz told Mills that Trump had kept Iran in check by assassinating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Gaetz said that Trump's policies had prevented the deaths of soldiers like the U.S. saw on Sunday when three troops died in Jordan. An Iranian-backed militia reportedly carried out the attacks.

But Mills explained how the assassination of Soleimani could have led to the deaths of the three U.S. soldiers.

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"I would argue that the elimination of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis only resulted in the replacement of Esmail Qaani," Mills responded. "So that's why, what did we actually create? We had the general secretary of Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, who leads Hezbollah, basically have his son marry Qassem Soleimani's daughter, thereby giving him more political power of the Ayatollah and creating Qatar Hezbollah, who's responsible for the majority of the tax on us in Iraq."

"So, this is not just, look, the bottom line is that we should have learned over the last 20 years, you cannot kill and defeat an ideology through bombs, bullets, and grenades," he remarked. "That is not how ideological beliefs exist. That is not how these people become radicalized."

Watch the video below from Rep. Matt Gaetz or at the link here.

Appearing on CNN early Monday morning, New York writer E. Jean Carroll called Donald Trump an "emperor with no clothes" whose power has diminished now that he has been held responsible for defaming her.

Accompanied by her lawyer Robbie Kaplan, the recipient of a $83.3 million damage award levied against the former president admitted she was initially nervous about encountering the ex-president in court but then she realized he has become a non-entity.

"There he was, and he was nothing," she told CNN hosts Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly. "Just, no power. he had — he was zero. That was, I was flabbergasted and from then on we just sailed through."

Asked if she made "eye contact with him," she replied, 'Many times," she added, "He's an emperor without clothes. it's like looking at nothing. It was like... nothing."

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"I had been prepared for the worst force, you know, on the Earth today, the most powerful, the most effective, the most money, the richest, the most, you know —— and there he is, he's nothing," she elaborated. "It's just the people around him who give him the power; it's the emperor without clothes."

Watch below or at the link.

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CNN's Briana Keilar on Monday got into a heated exchange with Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) over the Biden administration's Middle East policy, which he said was emboldening Iran to sign off on proxy attacks on American soldiers.

During an interview, Keilar argued to Waltz that figuring out how to deter Iran-backed proxies had plagued multiple administrations, including Trump's whose policies Waltz touted as a better alternative.

"I know you're critical of President Biden, that you think he is emboldening Iran, but how should the U.S. respond when even former President Trump -- I mean, you said that peace broke out [under his watch], but his direct and controversial action like taking out [late Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani] did not stop the deadly attacks on U.S. troops," she noted.

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Waltz replied that Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani after Iran-backed proxies had launched multiple strikes on the U.S. and its allies, and he claimed that those strikes single-handedly fixed the problem.

"They launched some missiles and that was it!" he claimed.

"Service members died!" Keilar interjected.

"Who died, post-Soleimani strike?" Waltz demanded to know.

"March 2020, service members died," she said. "You had Iranian-backed proxies... the one in March was determined that it likely was [Iran] and you had service members, two Americans and one Brit, who were killed... So if we're talking realistically on what deters and what does not deter the proxies, then let's use those facts to talk about what might actually be a way to... get them to stop."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Keilar gets into heated exchange with GOP lawmaker www.youtube.com

A new conservative conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl will be rigged to prop up Taylor Swift’s imminent endorsement of President Joe Biden is being torn to shreds by critics who call it “by far the dumbest.”

The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch Monday took to X to vent frustrations over the strange theory — centered on Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce — detailed in a new Rolling Stone report.

“Of all the dumb things the nascent nouveau right has tried over the years, attempting to turn conservatives against the NFL is by far the dumbest,” Bunch wrote.

While Rolling Stone takes time to detail how Swift’s perceived liberal politics and Kansas City’s AFC victory Sunday have created an NFL “scriptwriting” narrative, Bunch doesn’t pull the punch of his summary.

"Two hot celebrities dating is a psyop culminating in the Illuminati fixing the Super Bowl so you'll have to get vaccinated," he writes. "Get people to say the dumbest s--- imaginable ... and they'll believe anything."

The conspiracy theory has been shared by people including former President Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer, failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, reports and social media show.

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“Thinking about when Taylor Swift called out the Soros family in 2019 for buying the rights to her music and then how she came out a super liberal in 2020,” Posobiec told X followers Sunday.

“I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” Ramaswamy replied.

Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez wasn’t impressed by the conclusions drawn, which she argues ignore some pertinent information.

“One must really stretch the depths of credulity to convince oneself that Swift’s success isn’t a result of her record-breaking songs, albums, tours, movies, and a career that has redefined the music industry, but rather a government psyop that forced her to date an NFL star and take up entertainment as a career,” she writes.

“It’s all really stupid.”

Several X users following news of the theory agreed.

“Taylor Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but this time it’s definitely a psy op,” wrote Noam Blum. “Amazing that people buy this grift horses--- and ask for seconds.”

"Trump’s insecure brand of fascism requires constant attention and seeks to insert itself into every situation,” wrote GQ editor Luke Zaleski. “Like a kindergartener acting like he doesn’t like the girl he’s crushing on in hopes he’ll to trick her into liking him."

A legal expert said Friday that the jury in Donald Trump's defamation trial wanted to deliver a very clear message when it hit him with a massive amount of damages.

The former president was ordered to pay $83.3 million after a civil jury sided with writer E. Jean Carroll as her lawyers described how the former president defamed her. Of that, $65 million was in punitive damages, which are meant to punish the defendant.

The substantial amount comes after Carroll had already been awarded damages of $5 million in an earlier defamation and sexual abuse trial last year.

In Friday's decision, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig believes the amount they came to — far greater than the $10 million her legal team initially sought — was intentionally high to send a strong message.

"This is a massive number, far in excess of anything I think anyone really expected —18 times the amount of the verdict in the first trial. ... [Her] lawyers explicitly asked the jury to send a message and that is what they have done," he said during an appearance on CNN's "The Lede" with Jake Tapper minutes after the verdict was reported.

Honig continued: $60 million dollars in punitive damages — that is a message to a person who essentially the jury says we don't think you can be deterred for anything less than this massive amount of money."

Trump has already vowed he will appeal.

"Absolutely ridiculous," he posted on Truth Social. "I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!"

His attorney Alina Habba also appeared before a scrum of reporters saying "there was no proof" and complained that her "experts were denied".

"We are seeing a violation of our justice system," she said.

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Honig also pointed out that, historically, Trump's success legally in the Empire State has been touch and go.

"The broad notion is that New York juries are not friendly to [former] President Trump, I think that's pretty clear," he said.

The sexual assault revelations came during Trump’s presidency when Carroll, now 80, claimed she was in a dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in 1996 when he attacked her.

She claims Trump since went on to publicly defame her, telling reporters “She’s not my type” and “Totally lying. I don’t know anything about her." “I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She is — it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that.”

The latest trial involved defamatory comments he made while president, and are separate from the comments he was found liable for in his first trial. The judge had already found him liable the second time, and the jury was solely considering damages.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Donald Trump on Friday reacted to the news that he was being ordered to pay more than $80 million in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.

Trump, who testified in the trial but was limited in what he could say because it was solely about determining damages and not liability, said it is "absolutely ridiculous" that he was hit with such a high damages verdict. That amount is on top of the $5 million Trump was previously ordered to pay after the first Carroll trial last year.

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Trump posted his response on his own social media site, Truth Social.

"I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party," Trump wrote on Friday. "Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!"