Trump Warns Israel They Are Losing the World's Support

Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Israel over the global perception of the war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

In an interview with Israel Hayom reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Trump began by praising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's response to the terror attacks that took place last October.

“I would say I would act very much the same way as you did," he said. "You would have to be crazy not to. Only a fool would not do that. That was a horrible attack."

However, the former president warned that the government had gone too far in its campaign that has devastated large swathes of the Gaza Strip.

I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to call [Israel] and say don’t do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, Oh, that’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world. I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.

...

So Israel has to get, Israel has to get better with the promotional and with the public relations, because right now they're in ruin. They're being hurt very badly. I think in a public relations sense."

Trump also went on to blame the attacks on President Joe Biden, arguing that “They [Hamas] would have never done that attack if I were there.”

“It was an attack that I blame on Biden because they [Hamas] have no respect for him," Trump said. "He can’t put two sentences together. He can’t talk. He’s a very dumb person."

“Biden is not a friend of Israel. Because if Biden was a friend of Israel, October 7 would have never happened,” he followed up. “Forget about what happened after October 7. October 7 would have never happened if you had a friend named Biden, because if you had the proper president, that would have never happened.”

The comments are likely to add fuel to the fire of the growing tensions between the U.S. and Israel, which have flared in recent weeks as the Biden administration has sought to prevent the launching of a military offensive on Rafah.

On Monday, Netanyahu reacted angrily to the United States' refusal to veto a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire, accusing Washington of harming his war effort.

"This is a clear retreat from the consistent position of the United States at the Security Council since the beginning of the war," Netanyahu's office said in a statement, adding that such a resolution "hurts both the war effort and the effort to release the abductees" and "gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to accept a ceasefire without the release of our abductees."

Netanyahu and Trump forged a close relationship over the course of his presidency, with the former describing him as the most pro-Israel president in history.

However, Trump was extremely unhappy with Netanyahu's decision to congratulate Joe Biden shortly after the 2020 presidential election when he was still making the case that the election had been tainted by voter fraud.

"The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with," Trump said back in 2021. "Bibi could have stayed quiet... He was very early — like, earlier than most. I haven’t spoken to him since. F**k him."

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