By Vaughn Hillyard and Allan Smith
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that Israel must “finish the problem” in its war against Hamas, his most definitive position on the conflict since the terror group killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages on Oct. 7.
“You’ve got to finish the problem,” Trump said on Fox News on Tuesday when asked about the war. “You had a horrible invasion that took place that would have never happened if I was president.”
When asked on the program whether he supported a cease-fire in Gaza, Trump demurred, avoiding an explicit position on Israel’s military effort that has now also left more than 30,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The likely 2024 Republican nominee has not provided his own position on U.S. or Israel’s strategy throughout the five months of the war.
Though a stalwart defender of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration during his presidency, Trump has also attempted to strike an anti-war posture on the campaign trail in the last year, attempting to contrast himself from President Joe Biden and his remaining Republican rival, Nikki Haley.
“Frankly, they got soft,” Trump said on Tuesday about the Biden administration, claiming that the aggression by foreign adversaries would not have happened if he were still president.
“That should never have happened. Likewise, Russia would never have attacked Ukraine,” he said.
While Tuesday’s comments offered the strongest signal yet from Trump of what direction Israel should take, he has yet to offer specific thoughts or proposals on how much the U.S. should be involved financially, how hostage negotiations should be handled, the plight of Gaza’s civilian population or whether leaders should pursue a one- or two-state solution to the conflict.
Reached for comment by NBC News, the Trump campaign promoted the former president’s record on Israel and blamed Biden for the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.
“President Trump did more for Israel than any American President in history, and he took historic action in the Middle East that created unprecedented peace,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said in a statement, adding, “When President Trump is back in the Oval Office, Israel will once again be protected, Iran will go back to being broke, terrorists will be hunted down, and the bloodshed will end.”
Just days after Hamas attacked Israel, Trump, in a video posted from his Mar-a-Lago estate here, declared: “I kept Israel safe. Nobody else will. Nobody else can. And I know all of the players — they can’t do it.”
Trump did lay out a few markers in the three weeks that followed the Hamas attack. He said on Oct. 11 that a future Trump administration would “fully support Israel defeating, dismantling, and permanently destroying the terrorist group Hamas,” while telling the Republican Jewish Coalition later that month that Hamas fighters “will burn forever in the eternal pit of hell.” That month, his campaign also said that, if elected again, he would bar Gaza residents from entering the U.S. as part of an expanded travel ban.
In the four-plus months since, however, the former president’s once-ardent public backing of Israel has gone mostly quiet.
That silence has run parallel to Biden increasingly coming under fire from left-wing and Muslim American voters for his support of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack. A coalition of voters is campaigning for Democratic primary voters to vote “uncommitted” or for similar ballot choices, as some backed in Michigan, where the “uncommitted” vote earned more than 13% in last week’s Democratic presidential primary there — a small uptick from the nearly 11% who voted “uncommitted” in the 2012 primary, when then-President Barack Obama ran unopposed.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has increased its criticism of Israel but has stopped short of cutting off military aid. Biden is currently pushing for a six-week cease-fire deal that includes the release of dozens of hostages still held by Hamas.
The Biden campaign declined a request for comment from NBC News.
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, Trump expressed his ire at Netanyahu, who congratulated Biden after his 2020 election win, saying the Israeli prime minister had “let us down” by allegedly backing out of what Trump said was supposed to be a joint U.S.-Israel operation to launch the airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Days later, Trump posted to his Truth Social platform that he stood with the Israeli premier after pushback from some GOP rivals.
Robert Jeffress, an evangelical pastor of a Dallas megachurch and a close Trump ally who led the prayer during the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, told NBC News last month that he was not “concerned about his [Trump’s] position waning on” Israel.
The prominent pastor, who leads a congregation of more than 10,000 in Dallas, met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in February and discussed the support of evangelicals.
“We would love to hear from President Trump what he’s been saying for the last nine years and that is his unconditional support for the right of Israel to exist,” he said.
Maureen Maldonado, an author and a Christian radio host, said she understood why Trump wasn’t as vocal on Israel as some supporters might expect.
“He’s a friend of Israel,” she said. “It’s all political, and he needs to get into office before anything. He’s got to play the game.”
Vaughn Hillyard reported from Palm Beach and Allan Smith from New York City.
Did anyone read this explanation of Trump’s rush of the vaccine? It’s claimed he did it to thwart the great reset. It still doesn’t explain the Soleimani assassination nor his apparent endorsement of the Gaza genocide, but it makes a kind of sense.
This is a thread of tweets from an account no longer existing at X.
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Just to clarify briefly because many are still blaming President Trump for the fallout from the vaccines.
Trump had no choice but to release the vaccines in order to stop their great reset.
It was always meant to happen under Hillary Clinton.
The original plan was to keep nations shut down until a vaccine was made.
Multiple deep state leaders told us this.
They also said it could take years to develop.
A central element of the cabal strategy was to hide all treatments.
The WHO ordered all governments, news media, and social media to censor and ban information about treatments.
Trump smashed this plan by shouting from the rooftops that there were treatments.
He posted 26 tweets (!) about hydroxychloroquine and promoted doctors who use it.
Essentially Trump removed the need for a vaccine by saying there were cures.
Who needs a rushed vaccine if there are proven drugs? He promoted these drugs for many months.
The significance of this evades most of us.
The vaccines were not his idea. They were the cabal’s plan.
He released them 1.5 years sooner to end lockdowns, which saved the world.
That was the key to the original plan.
Under the guise of a public health crisis, shut down the economy long enough to kill it completely.
99% of the people that took it were also going to take it, regardless of what Trump said or did.
This is evident in the fact that despite his endorsement of the vax, the intelligent of the world adamantly refused.
If he had come out against the vaccines, they would have simply used it to destroy him and still introduced it but on their own timeline.
It was the only option.
Nothing could prevent the vaccines. Mankind demanded them.
They would have been released anyway.
All he could do was thwart their plans.
The genocide is not his fault.
The adverse events are not his fault.
All of this would have happened anyway, & far worse – on top of the total wipeout of America & all nations, followed by a tyrannical Great Reset.
#MAGA
The end.
Thank you for that, Toni…really makes sense….had never looked at it from that angle. Just brilliant.
And it’s easy to see why he would not bring it up since he would be labeled a conspiracy theorist.
That made my day.
Thing is, does this really answer Trump’s recent post on Truth Social??
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The words in quotes are Biden’s, and that’s Trump mocking him, so I don’t think it contradicts the conjecture that Trump rushed the ‘vaccine’ in order to break the lockdown. Biden is trying to take credit for the entire thing.
At the link is a text compilation and video of all Trump’s comments on the jab:
https://twitter.com/MJTruthUltra/status/1766151739596509354
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Thanks again, Toni…not you made my day twice in a 24 hour period.
Here’s what a cyber buddy said:…and I heartily agree
((It would be nice if Trump could confirm this after being re-elected and follow up this time with arresting perps and their MSM whores.))
More from a poster on Telegram:
𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘁 (𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝟭𝟳𝟳𝟲) ✝️🗽🇺🇸
I have no patience for you trolls that don’t understand why he had to push the jab anymore. I really don’t. And I’m not apologizing for it either.
#1 Had he not done so, he would have been labeled an enemy of the people for not providing a vaccine. He also would have been immediately attacked harder than ever, and then immediately impeached. For fuck sake, they attacked him for talking about the things that did work, how the hell do you think they would have acted had he come out against the vaccine???
#2 Had he not done that, we’d still be in lockdowns. We’d still have mask mandates, and half the damn country would still be at home.
#3 Pay attention to this one. Read it twice, even – HE MADE SURE IT STAYED UNDER AN EUA – THUS ENSURING THAT IT COULD NOT BE MANDATED ON CITIZENS.
#4 He gave ALL OF US more than enough information on HCQ, Ivermectin and Regeneron. As well as Chlorine Dioxide, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Zinc. He literally told the populace about all of that – like a broken record – FOR MONTHS before a fucking vaccine was even mentioned.
#5 No one in this country was forced to take it. Yep. Some private companies mandated it. But ya know what? PEOPLE STILL HAD A CHOICE. Anyone in this country that took the vaccine made the choice to do so. I get that folks were forced to take it or lose their livelihood. I’m empathetic and understanding to that – at the same time, I’m not gonna ignore the fact that even those folks caved to fear and didn’t even offer up the opportunity for God to serve up a new job or career in their lives. For every person I know who took it to save a “job”, I know someone who stood firm in their convictions, denied it, and were lead to better opportunities by a divine hand. I’m sorry, but the vaccine was an ultimate test of faith in this country, and many failed to place their trust and faith in God to see them through, instead choosing to take the jab to stay in their comfort zone. God can’t work for you if you never even give him the chance by not standing within your truth and conviction.
#6 DJT putting Fauci up front shined a spotlight right on him and exposed his shit to exponentially more people than it ever had been before.
#7 DJT told us all from the get go what Covid was, where it came from, and how to treat it. Many, however, still choose to ignore all the above points and ree like school children being told they can’t have a nap.
He literally had no fucking choice. Period. End of story.
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“finish the problem”
That’s disgusting. Trump has now definitively sorted himself into the Israeli camp. He has crossed the line from political expedience to jewish stooge.
Fair enough, Toni…..BUT, if it had been your intention to vote for Trump, will you still do so?
As much as I disagree with his stand re Israel and the jab, I just cannot see casting a vote at this point in time for anyone other than Trump. I would also love to hear Fetz’s opinion.
I don’t know. I can’t stand what’s happening in Gaza.
This is how they get someone who’s pro-Israel in the Presidency, no matter what. There is no real alternative to jewish control in just voting.
Toni, they run us and no one dares talk about it. Whatever it is, they hold it over every member of this government…even those like Ran Paul….or even AJ…truly astounding. And I just don’t buy into the “Samson” option….too easy and just fits into the common narrative among those who hint at their power.
I’ve decided not to vote for him. I’m in Colorado which is most likely go Blue anyway, so I’ll go 3rd Party
GRB….Would you not agree a third party cannot possibly win? So, in essence, you are voting for Biden. Personally, I cannot take that chance.
Major humanitarian mistake. I don’t know what voters can do. Democrats are not an option.
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