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For the second time in two weeks, Donald Trump on Thursday unloaded on Israel.
The former president has long cast himself as a stalwart defender of Israel. But on Thursday, he said Israel was “losing the PR war” in its handling of the war in Gaza because of its posts to social media showing images of destruction.
“And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel, is absolutely losing the PR war.”
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Far from a one-off, Trump’s remarks reflect the solidifying of a more critical posture he is taking toward Israel, despite steadfast support for the country while he was president. During his tenure, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city. Trump has boasted that he “ fought for Israel like no president ever before.”
But in recent weeks, Trump has reiterated his criticisms of how Israel — and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu — are handling the conflict. After the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel, Trump said that Netanyahu had been unprepared for the attack. He also called the anti-Israel Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “very smart.”
And in an interview published late last month in Israel Hayom, a news outlet whose publisher is Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson, Trump said that Israel had made a “very big mistake” by broadcasting images of the war.
“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 and every single one of those,” Trump told the newspaper. “And I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Trump’s remarks on Thursday came after seven people died on Monday in an Israeli strike against a convoy from World Central Kitchen, an aid organization that provides meals to civilians suffering from hunger due to conflicts. Netanyahu admitted that an “unintentional” Israeli airstrike killed “innocent people” in Gaza, adding that “we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
During his Thursday interview with Hewitt, Trump doubled down on his past remarks, saying that Israel was “releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it,” Trump said.
“I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,” Trump continued. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”
When asked twice by Hewitt if Trump is “still standing 100 percent with Israel,” the former president did not answer the question directly.
Despite his criticisms, Trump has continued to cultivate the support of Israel’s most fiercest defenders. That includes Adelson, whom Trump has dined with several times in recent months. Adelson and her late husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, donated more than $100 million to Trump’s past campaigns, and she is widely expected to help him again in the 2024 election.
Matt Brooks, the chief executive officer of the Republican Jewish Coalition, argued that Trump’s position would not impact his standing with Jewish voters, given that Trump has said Israel should “ finish up your war” and “get the job done.”
“Trump is giving the Israelis a blank check to finish the job and eliminate Hamas but be cognizant of the fact that time is not their ally and each day that passes public opinion is getting worse,” Brooks said. “He said exactly the same thing literally everyone in the Jewish community is saying right now.”
