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President Donald Trump laid into Israeli leaders for bombarding Iran right after he announced a ceasefire deal between the warring states on Tuesday, levying a rare criticism of Israel even after bombing Iran on its behalf.
Speaking in remarks to the press before boarding a plane to a NATO summit, Trump expressed frustration that Israel, in its usual fashion, unleashed a barrage of strikes on Iran shortly after he unceremoniously announced a ceasefire deal between the two countries that was to take effect hours later.
These were some of the most intense bombings of the war thus far, journalists in Tehran reported. Iran struck back, with initial reports from Iranian officials saying that there was no deal; Iranian officials later confirmed the deal but said they reserved the right to fight back if Israel continued striking.
“I didn’t like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal. I didn’t like the fact that the retaliation [from Iran] was very strong, but in all fairness, Israel unloaded a lot, and now I hear Israel just went out because they felt there was — violated by one rocket that didn’t land anywhere,” said an incensed Trump on Tuesday morning.
He went on to say that the ceasefire deal is still standing, but that both Israel and Iran have violated the ceasefire. Israel did order strikes on Iran after the ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday, accusing Iran of violating the deal, but the attacks appeared to be simmering down.
Just hours before his remarks to the press, the president had fired off numerous posts on Truth Social, saying, “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION.”
Trump’s ire seemed specifically targeted at Israel on Tuesday morning. Even after a reporter asked a question about Iran violating the ceasefire deal, he specifically brought up his frustration with Israel again unprompted.
“It’s true, they violated, but Israel violated too. Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel. When I say, ‘okay, now you have 12 hours,’ you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them,” Trump said.
“So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning,” he went on.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” the president concluded.
Trump also said that he isn’t interested in pursuing regime change in Iran, marking a sharp turn from just 24 hours before, when he said he supported it in a post on Truth Social. Seemingly the only thing that changed between then and Tuesday is Iran’s strike on an U.S. air base in Qatar — which Trump struck an almost jovial tone toward, even thanking Iran for giving the U.S. prior notice of the strike to minimize casualties.
The president reportedly spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday as well, with Netanyahu’s office later putting out a statement saying that it “refrained from further strikes” after the call, and Trump saying Israel “had achieved all the objectives of the war.”
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