Trump: Netanyahu 'rightfully has been criticized' for Oct. 7 attack

Donald Trump reiterated his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview published Tuesday, saying that the leader “rightfully has been criticized for what took place on October 7.”

The former president said the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel “should have never happened” and blamed Netanyahu for not seeing it coming, adding that he thinks it's had a “profound impact” on the Israeli leader. Trump had chided Netanyahu days after the attack for being unprepared.

“They have the most sophisticated equipment. They had—everything was there to stop that,” Trump said in an interview with TIME magazine. “And a lot of people knew about it, you know, thousands and thousands of people knew about it, but Israel didn't know about it, and I think he's being blamed for that very strongly, being blamed.”

Trump has grown critical of the Israeli leader since the Israel-Hamas war started, a stark difference for the former president who long cast himself as a loyal defender of Israel. Earlier this month, Trump said that Israel was “losing the PR war” in its handling of the war in Gaza because of its posts to social media showing images of destruction.

The former president’s sharp criticism comes at a time when colleges across the country have been rocked by pro-Palestinian protests, some resulting in arrests and suspensions. Trump has condemned the protests and claimed that the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., was “nothing” compared to ongoing campus protests.

Also in the interview, Trump recalled a time when he was president in January 2020 when a U.S. operation to assassinate Iran General Qassem Soleimani was supposed to be a joint attack until Netanyahu withdrew at the last second.

“I had a bad experience with Bibi,” Trump said. “That was something I never forgot.”