Trump elicits fierce bipartisan backlash with Israel and Hezbollah comments

Former President Donald Trump has been sharply rebuked by Democrats and Republicans alike for criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and praising Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as “very smart.”

Critics contend the 2024 Republican primary front-runner’s comments are a reminder of his unpredictability and unconventionality. But his campaign remains confident his record underscores why he will be reelected next year.

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Trump’s comments, made Wednesday during a Club 47 event in West Palm Beach and a Fox News interview, can be compared to “asking your kindergartner what he thinks about the world,” according to American Enterprise Institute foreign and defense senior fellow Danielle Pletka.

“Donald Trump doesn’t make statements that are about anything other than Donald Trump,” Pletka told the Washington Examiner. “Today he thinks Hezbollah is praiseworthy, in the same vein he praised [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and Netanyahu once looked at him funny, so he’s a bad guy … The only conclusion to draw is that he is still unqualified to be president. The rest is just crazy sauce.”

During the event, Trump called Hezbollah “very smart” as he commented on President Joe Biden‘s administration and Israeli concerns the group could attack Israel “from the north because that’s the most vulnerable spot.” Trump then recalled “a bad experience with Israel as president,” claiming Netanyahu “let us down” when he decided against participating in the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

“That was a very terrible thing,” Trump said. “We were very disappointed, but we did the job ourselves, and it was absolute precision, magnificent, beautiful job.”

Reflecting on what “went wrong over the last week,” Trump went on to say Netanyahu has “got to straighten it out because they’re fighting potentially a very big force.

“[Netanyahu] has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened here,” Trump additionally told Fox News. “He was not prepared. He was not prepared, and Israel was not prepared.”

Trump’s campaign defended the former president, arguing he was “clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack.

“Smart does not equal good,” the campaign said. “It just proves Biden is stupid.”

Heritage Foundation economic research fellow Joel Griffith similarly stood up for Trump, asserting, “Hezbollah has been stationed in and working within Lebanon for decades.”

“It’s why Israel Defense Forces have a permanent presence in the north, close to the border with both Syria and Lebanon,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question that President Trump is a friend of Israel.”

For Ret. Army Col. Rich Outzen, an Atlantic Council senior fellow, Trump’s comments could be considered “ill-timed” because scrutinizing “the sitting prime minister of an ally under attack may not help much.

“Yet the content of the criticism, that Netanyahu failed to support the strike against Qasem Sulaymani when Trump was preparing for it in 2019 and early 2020, may strike a cord with those in Israel and friends in Israel abroad who think he made serious strategic errors that increased the risk of an attack like we’ve seen in October 2023,” the Vandenberg Coalition advisory board member and former State Department adviser said.

“The comments will strengthen the hands of those wishing to hold Netanyahu accountable for the manifest failures that led to the security debacle,” he added. “Are they constructive? The Israelis have gone to a unity government. Everyone understands there will be accountability after the fighting. It may have been more prudent for Trump, as a friend of Israel, to have held critical comments until after the fighting, too.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) provided the Republican primary field’s most full-throated denunciation of Trump, pledging to “stand with Israel and treat terrorists like the scum that they are” if he is elected president.

“Terrorists have murdered at least 1,200 Israelis and 22 Americans and are holding more hostage, so it is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for president, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as ‘very smart,’” DeSantis wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The next day DeSantis’s campaign amplified Trump’s “rough round of press coverage” over his comments, emphasizing how “press and pundits across the country are noting [the governor’s] strong response.”

Democrats have condemned Trump’s comments as well. The White House described the former president’s remarks as “dangerous and unhinged.

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“It’s completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran-backed terrorist organization as ‘smart.’ Or have any objection to the United States warning terrorists not to attack Israel,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “Especially now as Israel is fighting back against one of the worst acts of mass murder in the country’s history. This is a time for all of us to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against ‘unadulterated evil.’ That’s what the president is doing as commander in chief.”

Trump averages a 45 percentage point advantage over his nearest Republican primary opponent, DeSantis, 58% to 13%, according to RealClearPolitics. Trump has less than a point edge over Biden, 45.3% to 44.5%, per hypothetical general election polling averages.