Former U.S. President and potential Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, voiced his backing for Jerusalem’s response to the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Hamas in an excerpt from an interview with Israel Hayom, published on Monday.
In the interview with the Hebrew-language newspaper, Trump remarked, “Only a reckless or foolish person wouldn’t have reacted as Israel did on October 7.” The full interview was slated for release later on Monday.
Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State during the Trump administration, publicly supported an Israeli military operation in Rafah city, located in southern Gaza, Hamas’ final stronghold in the region, on Saturday.
Known for his staunch support of Israel during his tenure at Foggy Bottom from 2018 to 2021, Pompeo tweeted that “allowing Hamas to remain in Rafah would be akin to firefighters extinguishing only 80% of a fire. We should endorse Israel’s mission to completely dismantle Hamas.”
Trump asserted that the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7 would not have occurred if he were still president instead of the current officeholder, Democrat Joe Biden.
In an interview with Fox News on March 17, Trump remarked, “If he [Biden] had been supportive of Israel, the Iran nuclear deal would never have been signed, and Israel would never have been attacked. I bet I would have had Iran in the Abraham Accords.”
According to a Channel 12 poll released on March 12, 44% of Israelis expressed a preference for Trump to win the November election, while 30% favored Biden securing a second term. Meanwhile, 26% of respondents indicated they were undecided about their preference.
Breaking down the data further, 72% of respondents who voted for parties in Netanyahu’s governing coalition expressed a preference for Trump, with only 8% favoring Biden. In contrast, 55% of respondents who voted for parties in the Israeli opposition favored Biden, compared to 23% for Trump.
The poll, conducted among 504 Israelis, had a maximum sampling error of 4.4 percentage points.
Trump and Biden secured the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations, respectively, in primaries held earlier this month, setting the stage for a rematch of the 2020 election.
