Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has launched his most brazen attack on former President Donald Trump to date, claiming Trump “attack[ed] our friend and ally, Israel” and falsely claiming he “praise[d] Hezbollah terrorists” during a speech in Florida.
The clip of Trump’s speech, however, undermines the claim. In context, it is clear the 45th President was referring to how “smart” Hezbollah leadership has been in comparison with the Biden government’s capabilities.
“I read all of Biden’s security people, can you imagine, national defense people, and they said ‘Gee, I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack from the north, because that’s the most vulnerable spot!'” Trump said.
“You know, Hezbollah’s very smart, they’re all very smart. The press doesn’t like when I say it… I said that President Xi of China, 1.4 billion people, he controls it with an iron fist, I said he’s very smart – they killed me the next day,” he recalled.
In lock step with the corporate media, DeSantis chose to misrepresent this as “praise” for America’s enemies, rather than a sober warning not to reveal weaknesses that terrorists could exploit.
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.”
As… pic.twitter.com/408e82OVDP
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 12, 2023
Trump described the Hamas raid as “savage” in the full version of his speech, and recalled how he “fought for Israel like no President in history, but then Crooked Joe Biden came along and tossed Israel to the bloodthirsty jihadists” by loosening sanctions on Iran and restoring aid to Gaza and the West Bank.
DeSantis’s claim that Trump attacked Israel also bore no resemblance to reality, as the 45th President was discussing Israeli intelligence failures, not the nation as a whole. Indeed, a full 86 percent of Israeli respondents to a poll released Thursday say their government’s failures were to blame for the Hamas attack.
DeSantis’s team have also been amplifying prominent neoconservatives in their attempt to frame Trump’s comments negatively, with national spokeswoman Carly Atchison sharing a post by war hawk Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin alleging the former president was “criticizing Bibi Netanyahu and Israel and praising Hezbollah as ‘smart.'” Griffin, in turn, was sharing a post by a Democrat PAC known as Meidas Touch, which was explicitly formed by the far-left to attack Donald Trump.
Neoconservatives have been using the backdrop of the Hamas attack on Israel to try and foment a new war with Iran.
