Donald Trump did little to hide his anger at continued hostilities between Israel and Iran on Tuesday, censuring the nations in expletive-embellished remarks at the White House.
Speaking as he was about to board Marine One for a NATO summit in the Netherlands, Trump told reporters: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”
It followed Israel saying it had intercepted a missile launched by Iran, soon after Trump had hailed a ceasefire between the two countries. Israel accused Iran of violating the terms of the ceasefire and vowed to launch fresh strikes. Iran denied the allegations.
Trump accused Israel of targeting Tehran soon after a deal was struck, saying both sides violated the peace agreement.
“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they 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,” Trump told reporters.
“You don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either.”
After making his TV comments about the perilous situation in the Middle East, the president appeared to continue his interventions from Marine One, posting several times on Truth Social. He warned Israel not to attack Iran.
“ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW!” he wrote. Trump later added: “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”
Less than an hour after Trump used the expletive, he posted again on Truth Social, “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.”
Sky News, the UK broadcaster, carried Trump’s comments live and apologized for the president’s language.
In his remarks to reporters before leaving on his trip, Trump also lashed out again at news outlets that have reported some skepticism about the U.S. bombings and whether they neutralized Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
“If you take a look at the pinprick, then you see that place is gone,” Trump said of destruction assessments. “And I say, I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B-2s. I think that MSDNC ought to apologize. I think that these guys, and these cable networks, are real losers. You really are.”
“They’re gutless losers. I say that to CNN because I watch it, I have no choice. I’ve got to watch this garbage. It’s all garbage, it’s all fake news. But I think CNN is a gutless group of people. And the people that run it, no one even knows this because it’s been sold so many times, but the people that run it ought to be ashamed.”
“MSDNC, a guy named Brian Roberts, he heads it, he’s a disgrace. He’s a weak, pathetic disgrace.” Roberts is the CEO of MSNBC parent Comcast.
