Former President Donald Trump has slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack in which around 1,200 people were butchered “should have never happened.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Time magazine published Tuesday, the 45th president said he believed the assault on southern Israel has had “a profound impact” on Netanyahu, 74.
“They have the most sophisticated equipment,” said Trump, 77, of Israeli security forces. “They had—everything was there to stop that. And a lot of people knew about it, you know, thousands and thousands of people knew about it, but Israel didn’t know about it, and I think he’s being blamed for that very strongly, being blamed.”
“I will say this,” he added. “Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on October 7.”
The presumptive Republican nominee has beef with Bibi dating back to January 2020, when, Trump claims, Israel pulled out of the operation that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
“That was going to be a joint [attack] and all of a sudden, we were told that Israel was not doing it,” he told Time. “And I was not happy about that. That was something I never forgot. And it showed me something.”
In his 2022 memoir, former White House senior adviser and first son-in-law Jared Kushner said Trump had asked about endorsing Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz in Israel’s March 2020 elections.
When asked by Time if he thought he could work better with Gantz than Netanyahu, Trump said: “I think Benny Gantz is good, but I’m not prepared to say that. I haven’t spoken to him about it. But you have some very good people that I’ve gotten to know in Israel that could do a good job.”
Gantz, currently a minister without portfolio in Netanyahu’s war cabinet, served for 13 months as alternate prime minster following the inconclusive March 2020 Knesset vote.
During his administration, Trump had been very cozy with Netanyahu and oversaw the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the brokering of the Abraham Accords in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan normalized relations with Israel.
However, the 45th president has also complained that Netanyahu “let us down” by acknowledging Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Earlier this month, Trump mused that Israel is “losing the PR war” and fretted about harrowing images coming out of the Gaza Strip amid the brutal conflict.
Trump is not alone in his frustrations with Netanyahu.
“I told him, ‘Bibi’ — and don’t repeat this, but [I said] ‘You and I are going to have a come to Jesus—’,” President Biden said in a hot mic moment at the State of the Union address back in March.
Biden, 81, and Netanyahu have had a series of tough exchanges throughout the Israel-Hamas war, with the president voicing concerns about the lack of aid getting to the Palestinians as well as plans to invade the southern Gazan city of Rafah without a robust plan in place for civilians.
Netanyahu vowed Tuesday that Israel would forge ahead into Rafah regardless of whether or not a deal is reached with Hamas on the release of dozens of hostages held by jihadists since Oct. 7.
