Former President Trump said Sunday that Hamas’s attacks on Israel and the Russia-Ukraine war would “never have happened” if he were president.
“THE HORRIBLE ATTACK ON ISRAEL, MUCH LIKE THE ATTACK ON UKRAINE, WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF I WERE PRESIDENT – ZERO CHANCE!” Trump wrote Sunday in a Truth Social post.
Trump’s comments come one day after Hamas, the militant and political group that rules Gaza, launched the largest attack on Israel in decades early Saturday. Forces invaded multiple Israeli towns by land, sea and air and launched a barrage of rocket fire in some parts of the country.
More than 1,100 people on both sides have died in the violence, while thousands of others were left injured.
Hamas forces also captured multiple Israeli soldiers and civilians, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Trump has lauded his own record helping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his time in the White House, pointing to policy actions like support of Israel’s claim to Golan Heights as well as his administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital and relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
The moving of the embassy was seen as a risk to the tensions in the region that went against years of U.S. policy to avoid establishing an embassy in the contested city, according to The Washington Post.
On the day the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem in May of 2018, dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers during mass protests at the boundary fence with Gaza.
The Trump administration later blamed Hamas for the deaths, which marked the deadliest day there since a war between Hamas and Israel in 2014.
Trump and Netanyahu shared a generally positive relationship during Trump’s time in the White House, though tensions flared up towards the end of his administration in 2020.
In the months that followed the 2020 election, Trump reportedly blasted the Israeli leader, accusing him of disloyalty for his congratulatory message to President Biden.
And late last year, Netanyahu railed against Trump’s dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, calling it “wrong and misplaced.”
While speaking at an event in Waterloo, Iowa, on Saturday, Trump spoke on Hamas’s attacks, claiming they are the result of the U.S. being seen as “weak and ineffective.”
“The Israeli attack was made because we are perceived as being weak and ineffective and with a really weak leader,” Trump said in an apparent swipe at President Biden.
Biden was quick to offer his unwavering support to Israel in the hours following the attacks, telling Netanyahu the U.S. is prepared to offer “all appropriate means of support” to Israel.
On Sunday, Biden informed Netanyahu that “additional assistance” was on its way to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which is expected to arrive in the coming days.
Trump’s latest comments on the Russia-Ukraine war do not come as much of a surprise, as the former president has repeatedly claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin “would have never gone into Ukraine” if Trump were president.
Pointing to his seemingly positive relationship with Putin, Trump in August said he was the “apple of his [Putin’s] eye.”