Donald Trump on Monday issued a new threat to Iran and Hamas after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida, as he tried to advance the ceasefire deal between Israel and Gaza.
Trump threatened Iran with potential consequences, saying he would “knock the hell” out of the country if it tries to rebuild its nuclear program.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them,” Trump said as he took reporter questions after meeting with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump said Iran “may be behaving badly” and suggested more severe consequences.
“If it’s confirmed, look, there will be consequences,” he said. “Consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than last time.”
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, responded to Trump’s comments in a brief statement, saying that “any aggression will receive a strong, immediate response that goes beyond what the attacker expects.”
Trump also said Hamas would have “hell to pay” if they did not disarm to advance the peace plan.
Earlier this year, the U.S. attacked three of Iran’s nuclear facilities using bunker-busting bombs and cruise missiles. Trump claimed that the U.S. “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities, yet it’s unclear how much damage was inflicted.
Trump on Monday also said he would support an Israeli attack on Iran if Iran continues with their ballistic missile and nuclear weapon program.
“The missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast. Okay. One will be, yes, absolutely. The other was, we’ll do it immediately,” he said.
Standing alongside Trump, Netanyahu praised his U.S. counterpart.
“I’ll say it again and again, and again, we’ve never had a friend like President Trump in the White House. It’s not even close,” he said. “And I think you can judge that by not merely by the frequency of our meetings, but by the content and the intensity.”
“He can be very difficult on occasion, but you need a strong man,” Trump responded. “If you had a weak man, you wouldn’t have Israel right now. Israel would have been, you know, Israel, with most other leaders, would not exist today.”
Their meeting comes one day after the president hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida as part of efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Russia.
Asked if he would support an overthrow of the Iranian regime, Trump said he was not going to discuss it.
“I mean, I’m not going to talk about overthrow of a regime. They’ve got a lot of problems they are in. They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust, they’re economy is no good. And I know that people aren’t so happy,” Trump said.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump was expected to be on advancing the Gaza peace plan, disarming Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza and the fate of the last hostage still remaining in the Strip, a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said.
Over 400 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave since that agreement, local officials say, while Israel has accused Hamas of ceasefire violations.
