President Donald Trump has raged at Israel and Iran after the “complete and total” ceasefire he announced on Monday evening immediately broke down with the two sides accusing each other of violations, claiming that neither side “knows what the f*** they’re doing.”
The president made the remark as he spoke to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House en route to his Marine One helicopter.
“Iran violated it but Israel violated it too. 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,” he said, visibly angry.
“I’m not happy with Israel. You know, when I say ‘OK, you have 12 hours,’ 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.
“But I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land. That was shot, perhaps by mistake, and didn’t land. I’m not happy about that.”
He continued: “You know what? 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, do you understand that?”
Trump then turned away and marched towards the helicopter, ignoring further questions shouted by the press corps.
Moments earlier, he had singled out Israel for criticism on Truth Social, posting: “ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW! DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.”
The fragile truce was announced on Monday hours after Iran launched missile strikes on an American military base in Qatar in revenge for the U.S. bombing three of its nuclear sites.
The question of whetherTrump’s administration should support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Operation Rising Lion offensive has caused a bitter divide within the president MAGA coalition, with the likes of Tucker Carlson, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, and former congressman Matt Gaetz finding themselves at odds with Republican hawks.
The news of the ceasefire was greeted with expressions of relief by Carlson and dismay by others like conservative radio host Mark Levin, who complained that Iran’s Supreme Leader had been granted a reprieve: “I hate this word ceasefire… Adolf Hitler wasn’t thrown a lifeline.”
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