Donald Trump is drawing criticism from Ron DeSantis, a rival for the Republican presidential nomination, over comments on Israel days after the deadly attack by Hamas.
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump is drawing criticism from Ron DeSantis, a rival for the Republican presidential nomination, over comments on Israel days after the deadly attack by Hamas.
Trump at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday night said Hamas would never have carried out the assault under his watch and condemned the violence that was mostly inflicted on Israeli civilians.
Yet the former president also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not joining him in a 2020 drone strike in Iraq that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and called Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, “very smart.”
“The night before it happened I get a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack,” Trump said of the drone strike during a rambling commentary. “I will never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down.”
DeSantis responded with a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, saying he would “stand with Israel and treat terrorists like the scum that they are” as president.
“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’,” the Florida governor said.
DeSantis has grown more outspokenly critical of Trump as polls have shown him dropping further both nationally and in key early voting states like New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung rebuffed DeSantis’s critique and said the former president’s words were taken out of context.
“President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack. Smart does not equal good,” Cheung said.
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Trump spent most of his Wednesday speech highlighting his strong support of Israel and condemning the violence against Israeli citizens, while pointing out the apparent intelligence failures before the attacks. He also emphasized his own record of moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and promoting the Abraham Accords, bilateral agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Trump’s remarks came after President Joe Biden has mounted a vigorous defense of Israel and vowed to stand by the Jewish community against a rising tide of antisemitism.
Biden on Tuesday condemned the weekend attacks by Hamas as “pure, unadulterated evil,” and promised military assistance to Israel.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison called Trump’s comments “disgusting, depraved and dangerous” in a statement issued Thursday.
(Updates with Trump comment starting in the 8th paragraph)
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