Trump: Israel ‘Losing PR War,’ Needs to Beat Hamas ‘Fast’

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Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that Israel needs to finish off Hamas “fast” in Gaza and “get back to normalcy” because they are “absolutely losing the [public relations] war.”

Trump made the comments in an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. They echo what he said in an interview last week with an Israeli newspaper.

Hewitt asked Trump what his advice is for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Trump making it clear that the Hamas terrorists have to be eradicated.

“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy. And I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time,” Trump told Hewitt. “And the other thing is I hate, they put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down. They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel, is absolutely losing the PR war.”

Trump said the same in an interview with Israel Hayom on March 25. He told the paper that “you have to finish it up” because “you’re losing a lot of support.”

Trump pushed back on the notion that he was being critical of Israel.

“Well, you know with the fake news, you never know what you’re going to get. You can say something very plainly, and they’ll turn it around. They’ll turn around everything. That’s why they’re fake,” he told Hewitt.

“Look, Israel should have never happened. If I were president, it would not have happened. Iran was broke. They had no money. They had no nothing,” Trump told Hewitt. “But October 7th would have never happened. … But it is what it is, and this horrible thing happened. And what I said very plainly is, ‘get it over with,’ and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.

“They’ve got to finish what they finish. They have to get it done. Get it over with, and get it over with fast, because we have to, you have to get back to normalcy and peace. The whole world is blowing up with this idiot president we have. He’s an idiot. He’s the dumbest president we’ve ever had.”

Trump went on about why Israel “releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down” is not a smart play.

“And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it,” Trump told Hewitt. “And I don’t know why they released, you know, wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough.

“They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big.”