White House, DeSantis slam Trump for calling Hezbollah "very smart"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo: Alon Skuy/Getty Images
Former President Trump's criticism of Israeli officials and labeling of Hezbollah as "very smart" Wednesday night drew a scathing response from both the White House and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Why it matters: Trump has a long record of praising the intelligence and authoritarian rule of U.S. adversaries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
- "Statements like this are dangerous and unhinged. It's completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran-backed terrorist organization as 'smart,'" White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
- Highlighting the Israeli and American death tolls from the Hamas terrorist attacks, DeSantis blasted Trump's comments and vowed: "As President, I will stand with Israel and treat terrorists like the scum that they are."
Driving the news: At a rally in Florida Wednesday night, Trump criticized U.S. and Israeli national security officials for sounding the alarm about Lebanon-based Hezbollah potentially opening a second front war from the north.
- "You know, Hezbollah is very smart. They're all very smart," Trump said, before acknowledging that the media often negatively highlights his praise for authoritarians like Xi.
- Israel "has a national defense minister or somebody saying, 'I hope Hezbollah doesn't attack us from the north.' So the following morning, they attacked," Trump went on. "If you listen to this jerk, you would attack from the north because he said, 'That's our weak spot.'"
- "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 because nobody's ever seen the kind of sight that we've seen," Trump said.
The big picture: Trump also said at another point in the speech that he had "a bad experience with Israel as president," criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not participating in the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.
- "I'll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing. We were very disappointed, but we did the job ourselves, and it was absolute precision, magnificent, beautiful job," Trump said.
- "Then Bibi tried to take credit for it. That didn't make me feel too good. But that's all right."
What they're saying: Responding to Trump's comments, Israeli communications minister Shlomo Karhi told Israel's Channel 13 that it's "shameful that a man like that, a former U.S. president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel's fighters and its citizens."
- "We don't have to bother with him and the nonsense he spouts," Karhi said.
- Asked by Channel 13 if Trump's comments suggest he can't be relied on, Karhi responded: "Obviously."
The intrigue: Netanyahu was once one of Trump's closest allies, but the former president's fury at the Israeli prime minister for congratulating President Biden for winning the 2020 election has upended the relationship.
- "I haven't spoken to him since," Trump told Axios' Barak Ravid in 2021. "F**k him."
