Former President Donald Trump criticized President Joe Biden during a press conference on Monday, blaming him for Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president blamed “Biden and his thugs” for his ongoing lawsuits and trials, saying it was all part of the “weaponization” of the justice system to divert attention from the president’s record in the field of foreign policy failures.
“He can’t win because of the October 7 attack on Israel, which should never have happened to him, which would never have happened if I were president,” he said.
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference
US President Joe Biden speaks at an event in Arizona
Trump said Biden’s weakness motivated Hamas to attack Israel, and spoke at length about the issue in an interview with Israel Hayom also published Monday.
“His foreign policy has been terrible for 50 years,” Trump said of Biden. “If you look at people who were in other administrations with him, they saw him as a weak, ineffective president. They never would have made that attack if I had been there.”
But Trump also leveled some criticism at Israel for dropping bombs on buildings in Gaza, warning them that some of the images were deeply damaging to their moral arguments for the war.
‘I think Israel has made a very big mistake. I wanted to call and say don’t do it,” Trump said, warning that the images and videos of the bombs falling on Gaza were “disturbing” and created a “bad image” for Israelis.
Palestinians, including children, examine the rubble and collect remaining belongings from the rubble of heavily damaged buildings
A plume of smoke erupts during the Israeli bombardment of a building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
“I said, ‘Oh, that’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad image for the world. The world sees this…’ Every night I watched buildings fall on people,” he said.
The former president acknowledged that he would have acted in a similar manner if his own grandchildren had been kidnapped by Hamas.
“I’d say I’d do about the same as you. You’d have to be crazy not to do it. Only a fool wouldn’t do that. That was a terrible attack.’
But Trump said Israel should try to end the war, warning that they were losing public support as it dragged on for several weeks.
‘You must end your war. To finish. You have to get it done. And I’m sure you will. And we must come to peace, this cannot continue,” he said. “And I will say: Israel has to be very careful, because you are losing a big part of the world, you are losing a lot of support.”
.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands
President Joe Biden, left, on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The former president, known for his boastful stance on foreign policy issues, said Israel was struggling with its image abroad as a result of the prolonged bombing of Gaza.
“I think Israel wanted to show that it’s hard, but sometimes you shouldn’t do that,” he said.
Trump indicated that the war would continue as long as Biden was president, describing him as the worst president in the history of the United States.
‘He can’t put two sentences together. He can’t talk. He is a very stupid person. He is a stupid person,” he said.
Trump boasted that he was very popular in Israel because of his decision for the United States to support Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and move the American embassy to Jerusalem.
“They say if I ran for office in Israel, I would get 98 percent of the votes,” Trump said. ‘I am not Jewish, and yet Israel is very important to me.’