Donald Trump is not frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. president said, addressing a question from Fox News anchor Bret Baier during a May 16 interview following his tour of three Arab Gulf states.
Trump told Baier that it was important to keep the Arab states “in our fold. ... They’re back loving the United States again. That was a full embrace.”
The trip, which skipped the Jewish state, had been characterized in the media as “shrugging off” or “sidelining” Israel, particularly as Trump appeared to ignore Israeli concerns about Qatar, a funder of Islamist groups, and met with Syria’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom Netanyahu’s government said is a “jihadist.”
However, Trump expressed empathy for Netanyahu in the wide-ranging interview with Baier, saying Israel’s prime minister is dealing with a difficult situation.
"[Netanyahu] is an angry man, and he should be because of October 7. And he’s been hurt badly by that. But in another way, he’s been sort of helped because I think he’s fought hard and bravely,” Trump said.
Trump had already attempted to allay fears that his Mideast trip meant a change in the U.S.-Israel relationship.
On Air Force One from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, Trump told reporters he wasn’t shunting Israel aside. “No not at all,” he said. “This is good for Israel, having a relationship like I have with these countries, Middle Eastern countries, essentially all of them.
“You have to remember, there was an October 7 that everyone forgets. It was one of the most violent days in the history of the world, not the Middle East, the world. When you look at the tapes, and the tapes are there for everyone to see,” Trump told Baier, referring to video of the massacre filmed and distributed on social media by the Hamas terrorists.
Tehran exports ‘terror and death’
Of Iran’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, the president said, “We’re gonna have a solution one way or the other. It’s either going to be violent or not violent. And I far prefer nonviolent ..., but they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump pointed out that Iran sits on one of the largest oil reserves in the world. He questioned why a country that has so much oil needs to invest in so-called civilian nuclear projects. “I think nuclear is fine. ... If you have a country with no oil. But if you’re sitting on one of the largest piles of oil in the world, why are you talking about putting up nuclear civil,” he said.
In his speech in Riyadh, Trump said Iran exports “terror and death all over the world” and called it the “most destructive force” in the region. He urged Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords.
Of the situation in the Gaza Strip, he said, “Gaza is a nasty place. It’s been that way for years,” noting that it erupts into violence “every 10 years.”
Trump reiterated his plan to create a “freedom zone” in the Strip, an idea he referenced during a press conference in Qatar on the third day of his tour. “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” he said.
The transformation would involve the removal of Gaza’s population, estimated at 2 million, to other countries while the Strip is rebuilt.
“[I]f you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that …, you really have a freedom zone …, a zone where people aren’t going to be killed every day,” he said during a meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office on April 8.
Trump told Baier that the Gulf states would be part of that solution.
“These are people [the Gazans] that want to be in the Middle East. ... They love the Middle East. ... They didn’t have to go to Sweden, Germany, these different countries. They could have been home in the Middle East, if somebody had their brains, to build beautiful communities. You know, 1.9 million is a lot of people, but it’s not a lot of people, relatively [speaking].”
