Trump shares letter from PA’s Abbas condemning assassination attempt

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wrote to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to express his outrage over the assassination attempt on the former president earlier this month.

“Acts of violence must not have a place in a world of law and order,” Abbas wrote in a letter to Trump obtained by The Times of Israel.

Trump sent the letter, dated July 14, back to Abbas with the message “Mahmoud – So nice – Thank you – Everything will be good,” scrawled on the bottom.

The former president published a picture of the letter on Wednesday, in an apparent attempt to strike a balance between Israel and the Palestinians hours after announcing that he’ll host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago hotel in Florida.

“Looking forward to seeing Bibi Netanyahu on Friday, and even more forward to achieving Peace in the Middle East!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

In the letter to Trump, Abbas wrote, “It is with grave concern that I have received news and later on watched footage of your attempted assassination.”

“Acts of violence must not have a place in a world of law and order. Respect for the other with tolerance and valuing of human life is what must prevail,” Abbas continued. “Despicable acts of attempted or successful assassinations are acts of weakness with failed understanding of peaceful measures to resolve conflicts.”

A 20-year-old gunman shot at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month, grazing the ex-president’s ear and killing one of the rally’s attendees before a Secret Service counter-sniper killed the would-be assassin.

Trump campaign communication director Steve Cheung told The Times of Israel the letter “was presented to President Trump after the heinous assassination attempt on his life.

“As he has said previously, President Trump wants to end all wars and bring peace to the region so that ‘everything will be good,'” said Cheung.

The letter appeared to be one of first times Abbas has been in contact with Trump since the PA severed ties with his administration after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017.

Trump has championed his pro-Israel bona fides as he seeks to return to office in November’s presidential election.

In his speech last week to the Republican National Convention, the ex-president warned that countries holding American hostages will pay “a very big price” if they are not released, though he did not specify which hostages he was referring to.

Five living American hostages, and the remains of three more, are believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza, all of whom were abducted on October 7, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Hamas’s October 7 onslaught would not have happened if he were president.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.