Six left-wing Jewish organizations asked US President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday to revoke a policy adopted under his predecessor Donald Trump to label goods from Judea and Samaria, more commonly known as the West Bank, as "Made in Israel."

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In a letter sent to US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that was shared with The Huffington Post, the groups claimed former President Donald Trump's policy was "harmful to essential interests of Israelis and Palestinians alike" and would increase tensions in the region if it goes into full effect.

J Street, the New Israel Fund, Partners for Progressive Israel, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, and T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights all signed on to the letter.

In December, weeks before Trump left office, a policy went into effect requiring products manufactured in Israeli-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria, known as Area C, to be labeled as "Product of Israel" or "Made in Israel" when exported to the United States.

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Companies have until March 23 to comply with the new guidelines.

Israel controls all of Area C, which comprises some 60% of the West Bank, under the Oslo Accords. Areas A and B are under Palestinian self-governance.

In their letter, the six organizations argued, "By inaccurately and misleadingly treating settlement and other products from Area C of the West Bank as if they were made in Israel, the [Trump-era notification] attempts to reverse decades of US policy that makes a firm distinction between Israel and the West Bank. It runs counter to the Biden administration's policy of opposing settlement activity and unilateral annexation of territory as harmful to the prospects for the peaceful, just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

US President Joe Biden has the option to rescind Trump's policy or decline to enforce it.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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The storming of the US Capitol is a jarring but natural product of years of violence and hateful rhetoric stoked by disinformation and conspiracy theories, experts on far-right extremism said as they pored over images of Wednesday's riot.

Members of far-right groups, including the violent Proud Boys, joined the crowds that formed in Washington to cheer on President Donald Trump as he urged them to protest Congress' counting of Electoral College votes confirming President-elect Joe Biden's win. Then they headed to the Capitol. Members of smaller white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups also were spotted in the crowds. Police were photographed stopping a man identified as a leading promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory from storming the Senate floor.

Online forums popular with Trump supporters lit up with gleeful posts about the chaotic scenes broadcast from the Capitol. Thousands of messages on Parler, a right-wing alternative to Twitter, included the hashtag #civilwar or other variations of the term.

"If you're surprised, you haven't been paying attention," said Integrity First for America executive director Amy Spitalnick. "We should all be horrified by this, but nobody should be surprised that this is happening."

Spitalnick's civil rights group is backing a federal lawsuit filed by victims of the violence that erupted at the August 2017 white nationalist "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left a counterprotester dead. One of the far-right fringe figures who had been listed as a speaker at the Charlottesville rally was live streaming video of the Capitol melee on Wednesday.

Tim "Baked Alaska" Gionet posted a video that showed Trump supporters in "Make America Great Again" and "God Bless Trump" hats milling around and taking selfies with officers who calmly asked them to leave the premises. The Trump supporters talked among themselves, laughed, and told the officers and each other: "This is only the beginning."

The crowd of Trump supporters at the Capitol also included adherents of the "Groyper Army," a loose network of white supremacists that includes "America First" podcaster Nick Fuentes.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said the mob's actions were "clearly consistent" with the conspiratorial rhetoric of QAnon, the baseless belief that Trump has been secretly fighting deep state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals operating a child sex trafficking ring.

"QAnon has been calling on this kind of madness for years," Greenblatt said.

Representatives of Facebook and Twitter said Wednesday that they were working to remove threats and calls for violence from the social media platforms.

But across both platforms, Trump supporters used the hashtag #StormTheCapitol to document the chaos with photos or video and praise the mob.

More than 1 million mentions of "civil war" and "storm the capitol" had appeared in Twitter posts by Wednesday night, according to an analysis by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL's Center on Extremism, said he spotted members of other white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups – the New Jersey European Heritage Association and Nationalist Social Club – among the pro-Trump crowds in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday. The storming of the Capitol is the "logical conclusion to extremism and hate going unchecked" during Trump's presidency, Segal said.

"We had conspiracy theories animating people to action on the ground. We had the mainstream and the extreme narratives meld," Segal said.

Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio was arrested this week and ordered to stay out of Washington after he was accused of vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church last month. During a debate with Biden, Trump refused to criticize the Proud Boys, instead saying the group should "stand back and stand by."

Greenblatt called on social media platforms to immediately suspend Trump's accounts for violating their terms of service. Twitter later locked the president's account, demanding that he remove tweets excusing violence and threatening "permanent suspension."

"This is a dark day for democracy," Greenblatt said. "I never would have imagined in my lifetime that we would be witnessing armed protesters storming the halls of Congress."

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Anyone who was in Washington could sense just how dramatic a day it was, although it was hard to foresee the absolutely terrifying chaos that would take over Capitol Hill.

This was a sad day for America that we love. An America that is torn and divided. A police officer in the crowd turns to me and asks what I think of all this. America is loved around the world, and now people are watching it the way children look on when their parents fight.

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The policewoman called her fellow officers over and told them how true that is.

Shortly after the congressional meeting on certifying the electors and US President-elect Joe Biden's election victory and after both houses of Congress went into their separate chambers to discuss whether to invalidate Arizona's electors, the protests got out of control. At first, there were reports protesters had made their way into one of the compound's buildings, but later, a few demonstrators broke through the blockades, making it to the US Congress.

The situation led to police imposing a lockdown on Capitol Hill, halting discussions in the US Congress and Senate and stalling the elector vote count. Fox News reported Homeland Security had sent forces to the compound in an attempt to gain control of the chaos that dominated the area. Yet the situation continued to deteriorate as the hours passed and protesters gathered on the Capitol plaza with flags. Some of them even began to commit acts of vandalism and made it to the Senate, and nearly made it into Congress.

As a result, both houses of Congress were evacuated, but not before lawmakers received an order to don the gas masks under their seats to be able to withstand the tear gas. US Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated to safety, according to a report by NBC News. At the same time, The New York Times reported a pipe bomb had been found and destroyed at the Republican National Committee headquarters.

This protest has finally divided Americans in ways that have not been seen for a long time. While the US has had its American Civil War and the Vietnam War, this time, we see two Americas that are incapable of even communicating with one another, and unfortunately, on Wednesday, passions transformed from words into deeds.

For probably the first time ever, the iconic US Capitol was breached in scenes reminiscent of actual revolutions.

At the time of writing, local police have issued a statement saying shots have been fired and a woman was seriously injured. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a curfew. Hundreds of National Guardsmen were dispatched to Washington to restore order.

Ahead of the breach, I even identified some Israeli flags, held up by evangelical Trump supporters.

Both Pence and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris were evacuated to safety and in a tweet, later on, Trump explicitly said, "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"

Pence, who was responsible for the meeting the protesters managed to disrupt, tweeted, "The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now. Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building."

At the same time, the White House issued a statement saying Trump had ordered the National Guard to Capitol Hill to restore order.

Biden called the events "an assault on the citadel of liberty: the Capitol itself. An assault on the people's representatives and the Capitol Hill police sworn to protect them."

America must not surrender to camps. Voter fraud is bad, but division is no better. "We haven't been this divided since the Civil War," a young man from Ohio tells me. Tod from Florida said, "The door was open, so we entered. We hung Trump signs. We didn't use violence."

The situation on Capitol Hill was out of control, but the restaurants open for business in the surrounding area were evidence that violence was not the main issue during the protest. On the other hand, institutions must be respected, and breaking into Capitol Hill under the auspices of Trump's speech was grave.

Even before the chaos broke out in Washington, Trump delivered a forceful speech at the "Save America" rally organized by his supporters, where he made clear to Pence and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell that they had to invalidate the votes of electors "for the nation and the country."

About an hour before both houses of Congress convened to count the votes, Trump arrived at the rally fashionably late. The goal was to encourage lawmakers to invalidate some of the votes and let the House of Representatives have the final say.

He said his supporters were "not going to take it any longer ... They came from all over the world, actually, but they came from all over our country … The media is the biggest problem we have as far as I'm concerned, single biggest problem … We beat them four years ago …. and this year, they rigged an election. They rigged it like they've never rigged an election before. By the way, last night [in Georgia's Senate elections], they didn't do a bad job either ...All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they're doing and stolen by the fake news media. That's what they've done and what they're doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved … Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide."

A swarm of people trudged from the White House to the Washington Monument in an impressive show of force. Trump called on the crowd to "walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

"Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country, our country," he said.

Joanne, who came to Washington from Arkansas with her daughter, told me, "I don't believe Pence will abandon Trump. We all owe Trump so much."

After McConnell delivered his speech saying the Senate would not be intimidated by "thugs" and warning "our democracy would enter a death spiral" if Congress overturned the election results, the crowd following his remarks responded with rage. "He's a traitor," one yelled out. He's "an accomplice to the theft," another said.

"So, what, to preserve institutions you can steal an election?" Danny, who came to Washington from Minnesota, asked me. He's a pharmacist by profession. "They're trying to make us look ignorant," he said.

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The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said Sunday his group now has twice as many precision-guided missiles as it had a year ago, saying Israel's efforts to prevent it from acquiring them has failed.

Hassan Nasrallah, in an end-of-year interview with the Beirut-based Arabic Al-Mayadeen TV, said his group has the capability to strike anywhere in Israel.

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Nasrallah said that when Israel threatened through a US official to target a Hezbollah facility in the eastern Bekaa region, his group warned it would retaliate to any such attack.

Israel has in recent months expressed concern that Hezbollah is trying to establish production facilities to make precision-guided missiles.

During the four-hour interview, Nasrallah said there are many matters related to his group that Israel has no knowledge of because those are kept in a "very tight circle."

Nasrallah also said that the last few weeks of the administration of US President Donald Trump are critical and must be treated with care. He called Trump "angry" and "crazy."

Nasrallah repeated vows that Iran and its allies will avenge the US killing of the commander of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone attack a year ago in Iraq.

"That revenge is coming no matter how long it takes," he told Al-Mayadeen TV, sitting with a picture of Soleimani to his left.

Nasrallah also vowed to avenge Israel's killing of a Hezbollah fighter in Syria earlier this year, asserting his organization could "strike anywhere inside Israel."

Addressing the incoming US administration of President Joe Biden, Nasrallah said Iran would not negotiate with the US on behalf of its allies or discuss conflicts in the region. He said Tehran would talk with Washington only about the Iranian nuclear deal.

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Lauren Boebert defeated Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in the Nov. 3 US House of Representatives race in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District. She will join a record number of Republican women elected to Congress this year.

Three themes define the congresswoman-elect's politics: outspoken support for the Second Amendment, devout religious faith, and staunch support for US President Donald Trump. Those themes apply to her being "absolutely pro-Israel," she said.

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In an interview with JNS on Nov. 27, Boebert, 33, said, "It's tremendous what President Trump has done in his short time in office," she said, citing the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem and the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

She said Trump has been the most "pro-God, pro-Israel, righteous pro-life president America has ever seen."

She said that there have been presidents, including Republican ones, "who say they are Christian, and they talk the talk. But he's the first one to really walk the walk, and make these things happen."

Boebert, whose congressional district is home to approximately 2,000 Jews, said she supports the Jewish state "not because I'm a Republican, but because I am a Christian."

"Just from my strong Christian faith, I see where God expects us to honor Israel," she continued. "And he says those who bless Israel will be blessed."

She went on to say that the United States and Israel "share common values" such as "human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion," and "democratic principles."

"There's not too many places outside of Israel where an Arab woman can vote," she said, noting that women in Saudi Arabia only recently got the right to get behind the steering wheel.

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As someone who, like Trump, has decried so-called "endless wars" in the Middle East, Boebert said she's grateful that Israel has been "battling those battles on their soil with their men and women," efforts she said the United States should continue to assist Israel with financially.

Boebert has never been to Israel, although she said she's "always wanted to go." She said she plans to visit as soon as possible with a congressional delegation organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Although she expressed support for Trump's tough Iran posture, including withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and enacting punishing sanctions on the regime, when it comes to militarily combating the threat from the Islamic Republic, Boebert said that America doesn't "need to be the world's police."

As it pertains to US military intervention in the Middle East, Boebert said, "Enough is enough" with "endless" wars. She praised Trump for not starting another conflict and for bringing US troops home.

In response to what US President-elect Joe Biden has said he would do on issues relevant to the Jewish and pro-Israel community, including keeping the US embassy in Jerusalem and returning to the Iran nuclear deal if Tehran returns to compliance, Boebert replied that "basically, Biden wants to undo everything President Trump has been successful at."

Despite an increase in anti-Semitism in America and abroad, Boebert said, "I don't know about there being a rise." Without naming anyone in particular, she said, "There's definitely been some congressional members who have had very anti-Semitic comments and, just like everything else that Democrats do, it gets swept under the rug and they diminish the story."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Less than a month before US President Donald Trump is set to leave the White House, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and US Special Representative for International Negotiations Avi Berkowitz spoke to Israel Hayom in a joint interview from Morocco about their experiences as members of the administration over the past four years.

"We were the most pro-Israel administration that I can think of," Kushner said, "but we were also the most pro-Arab/Muslim. We built trust by standing with our allies and partners. President Trump earned the trust of the people in the region and that gave us the credibility to advance our initiatives."

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He said one of the projects he "most enjoyed working on are the Abraham Accords, which saw four peace deals between Israel, the UAE [United Arab Emirates], Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco."

Berkowitz, who replaced Jason Greenblatt in his position just over a year ago, recalled how he had realized while taking a photo of the flight path on Trump's first flight from Saudi Arabia to Israel in 2017 that a breakthrough could be made between the countries.

"That showed us that even then, things didn't have to be the way they were. The privilege I had of working on the Abraham Accords later on has proven that."

The two said that it was precisely because the Trump administration did not belong to the establishment that they were able to be more creative in their thinking, which resulted in far-reaching steps like the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Berkowitz added that they had heard from regional leaders of their desire to normalize ties with Israel four years ago.

He said that from Day 1, "Arab leaders said they want to make peace, but the difficulty was getting out what we heard behind the scenes. Hearing and seeing today what I have known all these years … will impact millions of Israelis."

Berkowitz said that "even if my time in the administration comes to an end, I feel good about the nations coming together and getting to know one another, that new kosher restaurants will be opening in Morocco, and that this will continue even after I am no longer in the administration."

Commenting on the Trump administration's so-called "deal of the century" for Israeli-Palestinian peace, Kushner said, "The plan is the most detailed and realistic opportunity to resolve the conflict in decades. In my opinion, it's the only viable plan that actually could improve the lives of the Palestinian people. I think in time people will review the plan and appreciate its merits. But it also was extremely helpful to advance the Abraham Accords. By putting out a fair plan that Israel was willing to negotiate on, a lot of leaders in the Arab world saw that it's not Israel that is unwilling to compromise for peace. That helped break the logjam and start substantive conversations on normalization with numerous Arab countries."

As for the administration's apparent change of heart on supporting the application of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, Kushner said, "Ultimately it was something we were willing to do and are not against. We are very proud of the plan laid out by President Trump.  That being said the opportunity to normalize Israel with numerous Arab countries was too large to overlook. So we suspended that plan in favor of four peace deals, and have been in contact with additional Arab and Muslim countries."

Asked what advice he would give US President-elect Joe Biden on Iran, Kushner said, "The Middle East is in a much safer place than the one we inherited. That's because President Trump stood with our allies in the region. It's important to be patient when negotiating and not rush in towards a bad deal. America has a lot of priorities in the world," and Iran will call if and when they are ready to make a real deal, he said.

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Tunisia is not interested in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and its position will not be affected by any international changes, the country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Morocco this week joined the list of Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel this year, and Israeli envoys arrived in Morocco on Tuesday to meet its king.

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Tunisia's position dented speculation that it would be the next Arab country to normalize relations with Israel at the behest of the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The New York Times had reported on Monday that officials familiar with the Trump administration's efforts said Oman and Tunisia might be the next states to forge ties with Israel.

"As Tunisia respects the sovereign positions of other countries, it affirms that its stance is principled, and changes in the international scene will never affect it," a foreign ministry statement said.

Morocco followed the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan in moving toward normal relations with Israel. Palestinians have censured the US-brokered deals, seeing a betrayal of a long-standing demand that Israel first meets their statehood demand.

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The Israeli military has been ordered to prepare for a possible US attack on Iran ahead of President Donald Trump's exit from the White House on Jan. 20.

The move appears due not to any intelligence assessments regarding the Trump administration, but rather senior officials' anticipation of "a very sensitive period" just before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, according to a report by online news outlet Axios, Wednesday.

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According to the report, senior officials have expressed concern the Israel Defense Forces will suffer the brunt of any retaliatory action launched by Iran should Washington decide to act against the Islamic Republic. Possible scenarios could see Iran either striking Israel directly or through its proxies in Syria or allies in Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, according to the report.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported senior US military officials dissuaded Trump from launching a possible attack against Iran's uranium enrichment facility in Natanz before leaving office.

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The president had raised the idea in a meeting with senior national security officials after being briefed on an International Atomic Energy Agency report that found Iran was continuing to grow its stockpiles of enriched uranium, according to the Axios report.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Ehud Olmert said he was "happy Jonathan Pollard has freedom of movement," but hopes that for Israel's sake, the convicted spy stays in New York.

The former prime minister made the remarks in an interview with the Maariv newspaper on Sunday.

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Pollard, a former civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, sold military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon in the 1980s. He was given a life sentence, and US defense and intelligence officials consistently argued against releasing Pollard. But after serving 30 years in federal prison, he was released on Nov. 20, 2015, and placed on parole. In a statement Friday, the US Parole Commission said it had ended Pollard's parole conditions after five years after finding "no evidence to conclude that he is likely to violate the law."

Pollard is expected to make aliyah to Israel once his wife Esther, who is currently undergoing medical treatment for cancer, is able to fly.

"There are very few, maybe five people who are as familiar with this affair as I am," Olmert told Maariv. "The reason being that I dealt with it in all of its incarnations, from participating in a commission of inquiry in the [Knesset's] Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's Subcommittee on Secret Services in the 1980s, to other positions I held, including as prime minister."

He said, "I tried unsuccessfully to shorten his prison sentence. I also talked about it with President [George W.] Bush. The focus on this affair causes ongoing and difficult damage to the State of Israel. I suggest we avoid celebrating Pollard should he decide to come to Israel.

According to Olmert, "Removing the restrictions on freedom of movement was done not out of considerations that were taken into account up until now, but because America is almost in a very special period with a very special president and a very special atmosphere. There is an absolute breakdown there of the norms of conduct. At any other time, they wouldn't have allowed it."

Tremendous damage to strategic interests

Olmert claimed that Pollard's arrival in Israel "will intensify the damage the affair and our conduct within its framework caused us over the years. I am not free to speak about the most sensitive, substantial, and dangerous issues from the standpoint of Israeli strategy, unfortunately," he said.

The former prime minister also took Netanyahu to task.

"I see fit to say these things in the sharpest way possible because I see how the crook who now heads the government will try to make a big deal out of Pollard's arrival. He will welcome him the same way he welcomed [Hamas captive] Gilad Shalit. If he needs to, he'll give Hamas 500 killers to have Pollard …. I'm telling you that this affair, still today, has the potential to cause tremendous damage to strategic interests of the highest order."

Olmert asserted that senior US defense officials who will stay on when President-elect Joe Biden enters office "will settle the score if we continue to take advantage of this affair as we have been doing for internal Israeli political needs."

He said, "I prefer, with all due respect, for Pollard not to make aliyah. We don't owe him anything, sorry. He was an American spy who worked for a lot of money. This was not some Zionist volunteer who sacrificed his life."

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For the Trump camp, this was significant. The Des Moines Register poll is considered one of the most reliable in Iowa, which many look to during the primaries as well as later on, to get an idea of the political atmosphere in the state. Its pollsters, in contrast to the others in the state, predicted that Trump would win the 2016 election by seven points. And they were right: Trump ended up winning the Hawkeye State by nine points.

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Trump has shot up in this most recent poll and now leads his Democratic opponent Joe Biden 48% to 41%. This lead is beyond that of a margin of error, which stands at 3.4 points. Moreover, Trump's spike in the polls comes as Joni Ernst, the Republican senator from Iowa, is also pulling ahead of her Democratic rival Theresa Greenfield, now leading her by four points. In addition to the encouraging news from Iowa, Trump continues to maintain a statistical tie with Biden according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, which also shows Biden's lead shrinking in Pennsylvania.

The Des Moines Register poll is an anomaly in the state, where other polls point to a tie between the two candidates and is a reflection of independent voters deciding to lean right and cast their ballot for the president. And if they're doing that in Iowa, they may do the same in other Midwestern states – just as they did in 2016, when they handed Trump a victory at the very last minute.

This is the scenario that Biden dreads and Trump is betting on.  The Democratic candidate can take solace in knowing there are far fewer undecided voters this time around and that support is greater for him than it was for Hillary Clinton in 2016 in the Midwest, as well as nationally, although the latter is irrelevant to the US election system.) The bottom line is that anything can happen, and maybe Trump is gaining momentum at precisely the right time, while Biden, on the other hand, is losing steam.

Over the weekend, the Trump campaigned announced it would cancel plans to hold an Election Day party on Tuesday night at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, with the president instead likely to take in the results from the White House. While the move was immediately interpreted by the city's Democrats as a sign that Trump was feeling down and out, it seems they forgot the party would have violated the restrictions in place on mass gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak. Trump was also forced to cancel plans in Nevada last week when that state's Democratic governor refused to allow them to hold a mass rally, leading the president's team to hold one of the rallies on the Arizona border instead.

Trump is optimistic – despite all the restrictions, despite all their attempts to sabotage him, and despite the fact that people are grasping onto poll averages that are not in his favor. Yes, Trump is optimistic, some would even say very optimistic. The polls point to Biden emerging as the victor, but four years ago, they pointed to Clinton. Truth be told, Trump is in a relatively good place. According to one calculation, he is poised to garner 280 electoral votes and win the race, and that's even if he unable to win in Michigan and Wisconsin, which he won with a razor-thin margin in 2016, this time around. Trump will win 280 electoral votes as long as he succeeds in winning in the rest of the states he won in 2016, chief among them Pennsylvania and Florida. The polls indicate this scenario is most definitely possible since in some of these states, he and Biden are in a statistical tie.

Biden stays close to home

If the Independents continue to skew in his favor, and if the Republicans continue to show up for their party, given the passion out in the field, we could in fact see a victory with 280 electorates. One mustn't forget that although Biden is seen as the harbinger of change in many states, in Pennsylvania and in the Midwest, he is seen mainly as the man who will bring about the eradication of the fracking and coal mining industries, and in the minds of independent voters, that is to his major detriment.

All thisת along with the fact that Trump is still seen as better suited to managing the economy once a vaccine for the coronavirus is found, mean Trump is well situated to garner 270 electorates, if not more, and he is determined to use the final days in the lead up to the election to create optimistic momentum.

The president has been holding rally after rally where he assures Americans that the country's golden days still lie ahead while repeatedly warning that Biden will drag America into "endless foreign wars." At every rally, by the way, the crowd goes wild whenever he mentions the pro-Israel steps he has taken, including moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. But Trump main focus at the rallies is on warning voters that Biden will destroy their industries. In Michigan, he told attendees, "A vote for Biden is a vote to extinguish, demolish, and wipe out Michigan's auto industry" while noting he had brought in factories and prevented others from leaving the state. In Pennsylvania and the rest of the Midwest, the president warned Biden would "destroy" the oil industry.

On Sunday, the second to last day before the election, Trump had rallies planned in no fewer than five states: Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The last event, in Florida, where he is also a resident, is expected to kick off at 11:30 p.m. local time. Biden, in contrast, has decided to stay in Pennsylvania, just a stone's throw from his home state of Delaware, for the entire day.

Over 90 million US citizens have already cast their vote, meaning almost half of all registered voters in all 50 states and some two-thirds of the total number of ballots cast in 2016. Most states have already reported record-breaking turnout in the early voting stage. Naturally, the million-dollar question that must be asked is: Who does this benefit? In the coronavirus era, early voting models are no longer relevant, and because early voting is so widespread, no pollster is willing to say who they believe has gained from the phenomenon outright.

At his drive-in rallies, Biden draws a few hundred, and sometimes only a few dozen, cars. Trump draws tens of thousands of people. I have been to his rallies. The people love him. They know he is not responsible for the coronavirus. They know he did good things for the economy, they know his heart is in the right place, and most importantly, they know that while he may talk and tweet, he also takes action.

And so Trump carries on with his crazy process, as one man entering the fray and taking on everyone on his own. As far as the atmosphere on the street is concerned, and the number of Trump masks that abound regardless of Halloween, Trump has won. And that is true even in the country's Democratic capital.

At the airport in Washington on Sunday, two passengers stood next to me in line to rent a car; one a lawyer, the other working for an insurance agency, both proudly donning Trump face masks.

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"He's good for the economy, and he's good for America," John, the lawyer from New York, not exactly the reddest of states, tells me. "I'm convinced he's going to win because ultimately, you want a president that will bring the receipts," he says.

"Biden is the worst candidate the Democrats could have offered, while Trump is Trump. I just hope that after the election, the Democrats will be able to lose with dignity. America can't go on with this division for long," he said, summing up what many have said about Biden. They're not turned off by him like they were with Clinton, but they don't hold him in high regard either. Trump, on the other hand, is appreciated, on both sides of the aisle.

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