Former US President Donald Trump on Wednesday night criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed that Netanyahu did not help the US assassinate Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was eliminated in a US air strike in Iraq in 2020.
Speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump claimed Netanyahu was no help in the effort to eliminate Soleimani, but later tried to take credit for it.
“I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing. I will say that. And so, when I see sometimes the intelligence– you talk about the intelligence or you talk about some of the things that went wrong over the last week, they’ve gotta straighten it out because they’re fighting – potentially – a very big force, potentially Iran. And when they have people saying the wrong things, everything they say is being digested by these people because they’re vicious and they’re smart, and boy are they vicious ’cause nobody’s ever seen the kind of sight that we’ve seen. Nobody’s ever seen it. But they cannot play games,” Trump said.
“So, we were disappointed by that. Very disappointed, but we did the job ourself, but it was absolute precision, magnificent, beautiful job. And then Bibi tried to take credit for it. That didn’t make me feel too good, but that’s all right. So, they gotta strengthen themselves up,” he added.
Commenting on Israel’s current war against Hamas, the former President hinted that it occurred because the 2020 election was “rigged”.
"If the election wasn't rigged, there would be nobody even thinking about going into Israel," said Trump.
Before the Florida speech, Trump also hit out at Netanyahu in an interview to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, which will air in full on Thursday.
“He has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened here,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “He was not prepared. He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared. And under Trump, they wouldn’t have had to be prepared. That was not a good thing for him or for anybody.”
While Trump and Netanyahu were close during Trump’s time in the White House, Trump infamously cursed Netanyahu in an interview with journalist Barak Ravid in December of 2021. The former President had taken issue with the fact that Netanyahu was one of the first leaders to congratulate Joe Biden after his election win.
"I haven’t spoken to him since," Trump said of Netanyahu. "F**k him."
Netanyahu was recently asked about his relationship with Trump in an interview with CNN.
"I got a note from him a few months ago, when I won the elections," Netanyahu said, adding that it said, "Congratulations."
"I appreciate what President Trump did," Netanyahu said, speaking of their current relationship. "He moved the embassy to Jerusalem, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, he recognized our sovereignty over the Golan Heights, he went out of what I thought was a disastrous Iran agreement."
"I've been long enough in the political life to put aside periodic ebb and flow of emotions and to look at the substantive positions of what leaders and allies have done. I respect what was done and I appreciate it... I don't particularly care about it," he said, referring to Trump's disparaging remark.