New Trump ad pays tribute to ‘thousands’ of Oct. 7 victims
Video by Republican US presidential nominee appears to accuse Biden of a soft approach to Iran that enabled Hamas attacks
In a new election ad, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appears to blame US President Joe Biden’s approach to Iran for the Hamas October 7 invasion and massacre in Israel.
The video, which Trump posted to X on Monday, opens with footage of bombardment in Gaza played in reverse, as a voiceover talks about “thousands,” including Americans, who “were brutally killed” during the attack (some 1,200 people were killed).
“Before Iran helped Hamas plan the attack, before Biden gave billions of taxpayers’ money to Iran — Trump played hardball with Iran,” the ad declares, over a picture of the former US president meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At the end of the video, Trump himself chimes in, touting “unyielding strength” as the only viable approach to foreign policy.
“When I’m back in the White House, our enemies will know, if you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours,” he says.
The claims against Biden are accompanied by clippings from the New York Post, dated October 8 — the day after the Hamas attack — reading: “Iran helped plan Hamas attack” and “Biden $6 billion ransom to Iran.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2024
Biden last August agreed to unfreeze sanctioned Iranian assets — not American taxpayers’ money — as part of a Qatari-mediated deal to free five Americans detained in Iran. The US House of Representatives later blocked the transfer in the aftermath of the October 7 attack.
Iran has denied having prior knowledge of the attack and Israel has not accused it of direct involvement, though Tehran has supported Hamas through training and funds and shares Hamas’s avowed goal of destroying Israel. The attack was reportedly a closely guarded secret of Hamas’s top brass.
In 2018, at Netanyahu’s urging, then-president Trump scrapped the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, reimposing US sanctions aimed at deterring Iran from developing nuclear weapons. This led Iran to ramp up its uranium enrichment to unprecedented levels.
On Thursday, Trump wrote on social media that “Iran was BROKE” when he left office, and accused his rival in the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, of causing the October 7 attack.
Trump, who says he was the most pro-Israel US president in history, has reportedly criticized Netanyahu for failing to thwart the attacks.
The two did not speak for some three years after the prime minister failed to endorse Trump’s false claim that he beat Biden in the 2020 election. The two leaders appear to have reconciled, however. The premier visited Trump at home in Florida on July 26 during a visit to the US. A day before the meeting, Trump urged Israel to “finish up [the war] and get it done quickly,” adding that Israel was “getting decimated with this publicity.”
