Loyalist Friedman sticks with Don as US arraigns MAGA president

Just a few hours before former President Donald Trump was arraigned in Miami on Tuesday, former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a resident of Long Island’s Five Towns area, took to Twitter to broadcast his endorsement of Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

“I was privileged to have worked with President Trump and his team in setting and implementing his Middle East policies and I am very proud of our historic achievements,” Friedman posted on Tuesday morning. “I believe that it is in America’s best interests to strongly support Israel. No president has more strongly supported Israel than President Donald J. Trump and I endorse him for President of the United States.”

Friedman was Trump’s Ambassador to Israel from 2017 to 2021, and was involved in many of the administration’s Israel policies, including recognition of Jerusalem as the capital and the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The endorsement comes as some other former members of the MAGA team criticized Trump after he was indicted on 37 federal counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News that Trump is “toast” if “even half” of the material in his indictment is true and called the details of the indictment “very damning.”

“This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here — the victim of a witch hunt — is ridiculous. Yes, he’s been a victim in the past. Yes his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims, and I’ve been at his side defending him when he is a victim, but this is much different. He’s not a victim here,” Barr added.

“He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has.”

Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that Trump was “incredibly reckless” if the charges against him turn out to be true.

On Saturday, Trump denounced the indictments against him in a speech in Georgia, calling them “ridiculous and baseless.”