Trump blames Biden for allegedly ‘funding’ Hamas attack in Israel

Former President Donald Trump blamed the Saturday attack by Hamas on Israel on President Joe Biden and his prisoner exchange with Iran, which also allowed funding to flow to the isolated Islamic republic.

Trump appeared at one of two stops on Saturday speaking before a crowd in Waterloo, Iowa. There, he claimed that $6 billion, which was held up in sanctions until a prisoner trade in September, was released and made available to Iran. Iran is a known Hamas funder.

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“I would not be surprised if part of that tremendous wealth went into watching all of this aggression,” Trump told the crowd.

Trump claimed that the Hamas attack, along with the war in Ukraine and Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, would not have happened under his watch. He also claimed the U.S. was viewed as having a “grossly corrupt and incompetent president.”

The White House decided to unfreeze $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil revenue for humanitarian purposes as part of a prisoner exchange in August.

The White House National Security Council denies that the $6 billion was used to fund the conflict in Hamas. “Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people,” NSC spokeswoman Adriene Watson said in a statement. “These funds have nothing to do with the horrific attacks today, and this is not the time to spread disinformation.”

That has not stopped Republican candidates from using that figure to place the blame for the Hamas attack at the Biden administration’s feet. “Iran has helped fund this war against Israel, and Joe Biden’s policies that have gone easy on Iran has helped to fill their coffers,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said in a video on X. “Israel is now paying the price for those policies.”

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Biden declared the Hamas attack, which has killed hundreds and injured more than a thousand as of Saturday afternoon, an “appalling assault” against Israel and said the Iran-supported group are “terrorists.”