In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, Donald Trump discussed Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, what he would do as president of the United States, and his opinions on current US President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress.
While at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Omer Lachmanovich, editor-in-chief of Israel Hayom, and Ariel Kahana, the publication’s chief diplomatic correspondent, described the setting as lavish, with an aura of a royal palace. Israel Hayom reported that just before the interview began, Trump spent the first minute examining how the conversation would look on screen. After several seconds of watching the monitor set behind their backs, which displayed the interview, Trump said, “Looks good,” and the interview began.
The first question the reporters asked the former president was if he agreed with Israel’s goal of completely destroying Hamas. He responded, "Only a fool or a crazy person would not have responded the way you did," Adding that if he had been in the Oval Office, the war would not have broken out on October 7. "They would have never, ever done that [if I were president], for two reasons: number one, they were broke. Number two, when I was the president, they would have never done that because they knew there would be very big consequences.
Trump said in the interview that he blames US President Joe Biden for the October 7 attack on Israel because “they [Hamas] have no respect for him. He can't put two sentences together. He can't talk. He's a very dumb person. He's a dumb person. His foreign policy throughout 50 years has been horrible. If you look at people that were in other administrations with him, they saw him as a weak, ineffective president, they [Hamas] would have never done that attack if I were there.”
Now that Israel and Hamas are at war, Trump expressly stated, “You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done. And, I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can't have this going on.”
Lachmanovich and Kahana asked, if Trump gets reelected, and the war might still be ongoing, how he will act. Trump touted his accomplishments as president in response. “There has been no president better to Israel than me because of the Golan Heights [recognition by the US], the Abraham Accords.”
Trump boasted, “I've been loyal to Israel, I've been the best president in history by a factor of 10 to Israel, because of all the things I do. The embassy in Jerusalem, being the capital, is the best location for the embassy and for getting it built. The biggest thing I did was the Iran nuclear deal. I ended it. The problem is that Biden didn't do anything with it."
Trump discusses Iran
He continued with a discussion on Iran, adding that he does not think the nation should be able to have nuclear weapons. He said that when he was president, he was so tough on Iran to the point where they “literally had no money.” He said that Iran was only 35 days away from a bomb when a decision was made.
Trump clearly stated Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon…They can have a nuclear weapon in 35 days. I have seven months to go and nine months to take office. A lot of bad things can happen in that period. That's a lot. That's like an eternity. Seven months in this world, and especially in the Middle East, where it's so and so combative and so combustible, that's a long period of time, and so many bad things can happen. And also, so many good things can happen. If we had a real president, if we had a president that knew what he was doing, who could put two sentences together, that could get solved very quickly."
The interviewers asked Trump who would be his vice president, to which he responded, “Who would you like?”
After the interviewers expressed that they would like his vice president to support Israel, he replied, “You'll have an Israel supporter, that I promise you.” He then stated that Kamala Harris is the opposite of a supporter of Israel and that Biden also does not. He said they both support “the enemy.”
Trump also said that Senator Chuck Schumer is not a supporter of Israel, and highlighted the American Jews who do not support him. He mentioned The New York Times, calling it a “Jewish family.” He said, “I think they hate Israel. I watch what they write in The New York Times, it's hysterical. Now the conservative Jews love Trump, I would get the highest marks I would get, I would beat anybody [with them]. They love Trump, I think they are great, and they love Israel."
Trump also called out the Jewish voters who did not support him, saying that he only received about a quarter of the Jewish votes. He said that in the second election, the percentage was more concerning because of everything he had done for Israel. “How a Jewish person in the United States can vote Democrat or can vote Biden is hard to believe; it's almost as though they've never read a story. They've never picked up a newspaper or looked at a newsdesk… He has abandoned Israel.”
As the interview concluded, the former president discussed the mistakes he believes Israel is making, particularly in its public relations strategy. "I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to call [Israel] and say don't do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, Oh, that's a terrible portrait. It's a very bad picture for the world. The world sees this…every night, I would watch buildings pour down on people. It would say it was given by the Defense Ministry, and said whoever's providing that that's a bad image."
After the interviewers pressed him, saying that terrorists were hiding in those buildings, Trump responded, “Go and do what you have to do. But you don’t do that. And I think that's one of the reasons that there has been a lot of kickback. If people didn't see that every single night, I'd watch every single one of those... And I think Israel wanted to show that it's tough, but sometimes you shouldn't be doing that…Israel has to be very careful because you're losing a lot of the world, you're losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done. And you have to get on to peace, to get on to a normal life for Israel and for everybody else."