Longtime Newsmax commentator and conservative Jewish author David Horowitz has died at age 86.
"On behalf of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are very saddened to announce the passing of the Center's founder, David Horowitz," the center he founded in 1998 wrote Tuesday night on X.
"David Horowitz, 1939-2025. Requiescat in pace."
An updated post read, "David passed away today, April 29th, 2025."
He is survived by his fourth wife April and his four children and leaves a lasting memory on the Newsmax viewership and readerships.
His story is one of a self-proclaimed former Marxist who had "Second Thoughts" on leftist ideology, becoming a conservative stalwart and a fierce defender of religion and President Donald Trump.
In fact, Trump used the title of Horowitz's "Final Battle" book to make it a prevailing theme in hundreds of Trump campaign rallies between his departure from the White House in January 2021 to his return to the White House after the November 2024 presidential election.
Among his most recent books was "The Radical Mind." Horowitz wrote so poignantly about the left and its ideology because he used to preach it himself before he saw the light as former President Ronald Reagan did.
But the one book that helped reshape the 2024 presidential election campaign was one that moved Trump as he boarded Trump Force One to appear for his famed mugshot and booking for his first-of-its-kind arrest of a former U.S. president in April 2023.
As Trump took flight, he issued a press release making reference to his call for a "final battle."
Trump's release simply stated: "ICYMI: 'Trump: '2024 Is Final Battle'; 'We're Only Ones Who Can Stop Them.'"
The release urged supporters to read a Newsmax article detailing Trump's use of the term "final battle" at his March 2023 rally in Waco, Texas.
Trump returned to the campaign rally trail in Texas, saying, "2024 is the final battle."
"That's going to be the big one," Trump told his crowd at the rally. "You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over, and America will be a free nation once again."
Trump was clearly referring to Horowitz's bestseller, "Final Battle: The Next Election Could Be the Last."
Previously, Trump has explicitly praised Horowitz's "Final Battle."
Trump wrote in February 2023, "My great friend and author of 'Dark Agenda,' David Horowitz, is out with a new book, 'Final Battle: The Next Election Could Be the Last.' It is great! Get your copy!"
In "Final Battle," Horowitz had predicted the leftists, so fearful of Trump's return to the White House, would stop at nothing, including indictments against the former president.
The effort backfired, as Trump's campaign raised millions off the indictments and would ultimately knock out the Biden family dynasty and defeat replacement candidate then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Horowitz's books often dealt with his conversion to become a Republican during Reagan's administration, the fight from the left against religion and the left's seeking to destroy America.
Many of the Horowitz book titles would ultimately become Trump campaign mantras on the stump, including "The Enemy Within," "Big Agenda," "Dark Agenda," and "Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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