John Bolton, who served for 17 months as Trump’s White House national security adviser, told The Hill the former president’s stance on Israel will largely depend on the environment he inherits and on what would best serve his own interests.
“At bottom, Trump doesn’t have a national security policy,” Bolton said, calling the former president’s approach “ad hoc.”
“He sees things primarily through the prism of, ‘Does this benefit Donald Trump?’” Bolton added.
Trump blasted Israel’s destruction of Gaza during an interview with Israeli reporters last week, and he repeated some of those criticisms Thursday in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Trump told Hewitt, “Israel is absolutely losing the PR war,” criticizing the images being played around the world showing massive destruction of Gaza.
“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,” Trump said, without directly answering whether he was “100 percent with Israel.”
In an interview with Israel Hayom last week, he said Israel made a “very big mistake” with the bombings in Gaza.
“Israel has to get better with the promotional and with the public relations because right now they’re in ruin,” Trump added. “They’re being hurt very badly, I think, in a public relations sense.”
Trump has lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the past. “F‑‑‑ him,” Trump said about Netanyahu, during a 2021 interview with Axios’s Barak Ravid after the Israeli leader recognized President Biden’s 2020 election victory.
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