Donald Trump on Wednesday called Hezbollah “very smart” hours after the Lebanese-based terror group fired missiles at Israeli troops — and in separate remarks the former president implied Hamas would never have attacked Israel if he had been in the White House.
During a rally in West Palm Beach, Fla., near his membership club and official residence in Palm Beach, Trump blamed Israeli and U.S. government officials for Wednesday’s attack from the Iranian-backed terror group, which came days after Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip stormed the Israeli border, killing hundreds of civilians, including women, children and the elderly.
The former president accused the Biden administration and Israeli officials of publicly pointing out the vulnerabilities of the Jewish state, speculating that those comments incited a subsequent Hezbollah attack.
“Two nights ago, I read all of Biden’s security people, can you imagine, national defense people, and they said, ‘Gee, I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack from the north, because that’s the most vulnerable spot,’ ” Trump told the crowd. “I said, ‘Wait a minute.’ You know, Hezbollah is very smart. They’re all very smart.”
Context: Netanyahu praises Blinken in Tel Aviv over ‘unequivocable’ demonstration of U.S. support for Israel
Key Words: ‘We know that Egypt had warned the Israelis three days prior,’ House Republican says of Hamas attack
Trump then appeared to claim that Israeli defense officials had made the same public observation — in his view, prompting the Hezbollah attack.
“They have a national defense minister or somebody saying, ‘I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack us from the north.’ So the following morning, they attacked,” Trump said.
“They might not have been doing it, but if you listen to this jerk, you would attack from the north, because he said that’s our weak spot,” the former president went on. “Whoever heard of officials saying on television that they hope the enemy doesn’t attack in a certain area?”
The Israeli military confirmed Wednesday that Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position but would not comment on possible casualties.
Hezbollah claims to have killed and wounded Israeli troops with its missile strike.
See: Rockets fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon elevate concern over prospect of Hezbollah involvement
In a clip of an interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that was set to air Thursday, Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Netanyahu hadn’t been prepared for Saturday’s incursion by Hamas.
“We have to protect Israel,” Trump said. “There’s no choice. And why do we have to do it? [Netanyahu] has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened here. He was not prepared. He was not prepared, and Israel was not prepared.”
Critics inside Israel and abroad have suggested that Netanyahu has been distracted by a rightward lurch following the formation of the country’s most radically right-wing government in history and by ongoing legal proceedings in corruption cases brought against Netanyahu.
Trump went on to suggest that if he were president the U.S. would have detected and prevented the terrorist attack in Israel. “And under Trump, they wouldn’t have had to be prepared,” he said.
Key Words: Trump criticizes Netanyahu, saying the Israeli prime minister ‘let us down’
During his remarks at the Florida rally, Trump vowed to “stand with Israel 100%” and “not let them fail” if he’s elected president, moments before recounting “a bad experience” he had with the country’s leadership during his time in office.
“When we took out [Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani] it was us and Israel working as a group. And we knew where he was. We knew how he was coming in. We knew the plane, we knew everything. We worked on it for weeks, for months actually,” Trump recalled.
“He was a very bad guy, very smart guy, but a very bad guy,” Trump said of the Iranian general killed during a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in January 2020.
From the archives (January 2020): No hard evidence for Trump’s claim of Iranian threat against 4 U.S. embassies, Esper says
And (January 2021): Iranian account draws Twitter ban over apparent threat to assassinate Trump
From the archives (February 2021): Biden orders airstrikes against Iran-backed militia in Syria
“And Israel was going to do this with us and it was being planned and working on it for months and now we had everything all set to go. And the night before it happened, I got a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack,” Trump claimed, adding that “nobody’s heard this story before” and joking that the information he was sharing with the Florida audience might be classified.
Trump explained that he ordered the attack on Soleimani anyway and was not told why Israel allegedly backed out at the last moment, calling Netanyahu’s alleged decision “a terrible thing.”
“But I’ll never forget — I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down,” Trump said. “That was a very terrible thing.”
“And then Bibi tried to take credit for it. That was it. That didn’t make me feel too good, but that’s all right,” Trump said, adopting a sardonic tone.
From the archives (January 2020): VFW calls on Trump to apologize for comments about brain injuries suffered by U.S. troops in Iran attack on Iraqi base
The former president added that Israel must “strengthen themselves up” and “ step up their game” militarily.
The Trump comments sparked criticism from one of his 2024 GOP presidential primary rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Terrorists have murdered at least 1,200 Israelis and 22 Americans and are holding more hostage, so it is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as ‘very smart,’ ” DeSantis posted on X, the social platform.
A version of this report appeared at NYPost.com.
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