As 2023 came to a close, former President Donald Trump sat down with Breitbart News for an exclusive interview at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Like many would expect, the Donald spoke with many quotable lines, and he delivered some expert responses to their tailored questions. Lobbing them in for maximum effectiveness, Trump took advantage of the situation. When the conversation turned towards the Middle East, though, he may have taken things a tad too far.
During Trump’s time in office, multiple Middle Eastern nations entered into the Abraham Accords. Under the agreement, they agreed to the existence and legitimization of Israel, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan all signing on. According to Trump, losing the 2020 election changed everything there.
“You would have had every country sign, including possibly Iran, into the Abraham Accords if the election wasn’t rigged. By this time, you would have had every country—Saudi Arabia, and maybe even Iran—signed… Iran, as you know, was broke with me. Now, they’ve got $250 billion. I’m not even talking about the $6 billion and the $10 billion. They have $250 billion now, but they were broke. There was no money for Hamas, no money for Hezbollah.”
That wasn’t all, though. Trump went on to bring up the October 7th attacks by Hamas on Israel.
“It [the October 7 attack in Israel] never would have happened. We would have taken much more decisive action if it did. I don’t understand these people…We say this guy [Biden] is vicious but he’s not vicious against all these countries. I think he’s a Manchurian candidate. These countries have given him so much money, it’s almost like he’s taken money from the whole world. The way he’s handling China is so ridiculous that it must be that he’s compromised. There could be no other reason other than that he’s compromised.”
Let’s face the facts here. Trump would not and could not have done more than Israel did to prevent October 7th. Much like America’s own 9/11 attacks, they had chatter about the possibility of this happening, and they chose to ignore it. Love or hate the man, but he wouldn’t have had the ability to make Israel stand up in preparation for Hamas that day; nor could he have sent in American troops.
Much the same, he more than likely wouldn’t have Iran signing off on the Abraham Accords if he was in charge of the nation. As he declared, they were financially shackled when he was in charge of the US. Overall, Iran is tolerant of Christians and Jews, but they are also taking a “breed them out” mindset to their situation. As Muslims are not allowed to renounce their faith, there is no conversion for them, especially in Iran.
Trump’s statements that he would have achieved peace in the Middle East by essentially starving them out is laughable at best. The American people have witnessed first-hand just how the Middle East sees the US, and Trump, quite frankly, isn’t someone extra intimidating to them. If anything, he’s only slightly more intimidating than Biden is.
While his call-outs on Biden’s actions, as well as the odds that he’s taking kickbacks from other nations, are spot on, he is tooting his own horn far too hard. Quite frankly, Biden gave them the conditions to rise and to take power in hostile parts of the globe. While nothing has proven that he got kickbacks or direct profits since he has been President, previous crimes, including those with his son Hunter, sure make that easy to suspect.
Barring any massive change, Trump will be the GOP Presidential candidate later this year. The continuance of President Biden for the Democrats is uncertain, but he will presumptively get the nomination. With Democrat Grover Cleveland being the only President to serve nonconsecutive terms from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897, Trump is entering relatively unexplored territory.
Given how volatile the 2016 and 2020 elections were towards the end, expect 2024 to get significantly worse. If Trump keeps making statements like the ones he gave to Breitbart, he could easily talk himself out of the Presidency and even the Republican nomination.
