Trump: Hamas onslaught, Israel counter-attack wouldn’t have happened if I were president

Former US president Donald Trump says Hamas’s October 7 onslaught as well as the subsequent war Israel is waging against the Gaza terror group would never have happened if he were still in the White House.

“It would have never happened if I was president. Iran was broke… They had no money for Hamas, for Hezbollah, they were broke,” he says in a “Fox & Friends” phone interview.

“They wouldn’t have done it to me. I guarantee you that. They did this because they have no respect for Biden.”

Asked whether he supports the way the IDF is fighting in Gaza, Trump responds, “You’ve gotta finish the problem. You had a horrible invasion [that] took place.”

It's garbled because Trump is generally incoherent but I think Trump is saying that the Hamas attack on Israel happened because the Israelis "got soft" here.

He goes on to say that dead people in Ukraine and Russia and Israel would be "leading great lives" if he was in office. pic.twitter.com/x6GpYk1BZ3

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 5, 2024

“Likewise, Russia would never never have attacked Ukraine. Never. You know it, everybody knows it. This is all on Biden.”

Asked whether he thinks US President Joe Biden is in the process of “abandoning Israel,” Trump responds, “I do believe that” before mocking his successor’s mental competence.

“It’s the fascists and the communists [who] surround him. They’re making the calls,” Trump claims.

Asked whether he supports US Vice President Kamala Harris’s call for a temporary ceasefire, Trump reiterates, “This attack on Israel, and likewise, Israel’s counter attack — which is what it is — would never have happened if I was president.”

He appears to again claim that the 2020 US election was stolen before saying, “all these people that are dead in Ukraine and Russia and Israel all these areas that are destroyed. People would be leading great lives right now.”

“We’re gonna end up in World War III,” Trump warns.