Donald Trump has accused Joe Biden of having ‘an attitude of weakness’ which has led to the current Israel-Gaza conflict, declaring: ‘that wouldn’t have happened with me.’
Speaking from Trump Tower in Manhattan on Tuesday, the former president told cable news channel OAN that he intended to build a rival social network to compensate for his ban from social media. He admitted that being barred since January on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms was hampering fundraising for a potential 2024 presidential run.
And he strongly criticized his successor’s policy in the Middle East, describing Biden as having enfeebled the United States.
The interview aired on Thursday night, shortly after Biden addressed the nation and declared that a ceasefire had been agreed to end the 11 days of fighting.
‘He’s shown such weakness,’ Trump said of Biden.
‘They have planes flying over Taiwan now.
‘You wouldn’t have had this problem in Israel.
‘They didn’t shoot rockets. They are shooting thousands of rockets into Israel – that wouldn’t have happened with me.’
Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke to OAN, for an interview that aired on Thursday evening
Trump told OAN’s White House correspondent Chanel Rion that he feared for the future of the region.
While in the White House, Trump prided himself on being staunchly pro-Israel, and was a firm ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘You get war, you get big war in the Middle East and it’s going to get worse,’ Trump said.
Asked by Rion how he would handle the situation differently, Trump replied: ‘They have to know the president is going to be representing whatever it is you’re talking about.
‘It’s an attitude.
‘The attitude is that of weakness.
‘This would never have happened.’
Trump also pointed to Russia’s recent aggressive moves towards Ukraine as a sign of American weakness.
He said that his strength had prevented North Korea from declaring war.
Trump has barely been out of the spotlight since stepping down on January 20, and frequently appears on cable news to weigh in on issues of the day.
Banned from social media, he now issues statements, rather than tweets.
‘We are getting our voice out,’ he said.
‘I think my voice is out just as it was before.
‘But if you want to run a campaign it’s much more difficult to raise money. Because you use those platforms to raise money.’
Trump said that his team would have ‘to do our own thing.’
‘I think there will be tremendous litigation as it makes it incredibly unfair,’ he said.
The former president has frequently floated the idea of creating his own social network, yet nothing has emerged.
‘They have a lot of people working in the White House who worked for big tech,’ said Trump, adding that Democrats have ’embraced big tech’.
The former president has now moved for the summer from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The move is to escape the swampy Florida summer heat, but also to be closer to the headquarters of the Trump Organization – which, it emerged on Tuesday, is now facing a criminal investigation into its finances led by the New York attorney general.
Trump did not in Tuesday’s interview discuss the probe into his company’s finances, which began in 2019.
He was informed in April that the inquiry had progressed from being a purely civil investigation, and now was exploring possibly criminal conduct.