Trump says he and Netanyahu are 'war heroes' over role in Iran conflict, lambasts efforts to ‘put Bibi in jail’

U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin on Tuesday, called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war hero” over his role in the Operation Rising Lion war with Iran. 

The comments came in an interview that mostly focused on the situation in Ukraine and Russia, and President Trump’s attempts to negotiate an end to that conflict. Levin asked Trump about reports of a possible hostage-ceasefire deal, after Hamas claimed to have accepted a new proposal from Egypt and Qatar. 

President Trump claimed that Hamas was not willing to release any more hostages until his election. 

“First of all, they weren’t giving you back any hostages,” Trump claimed, “I’m the one that got all the hostages back.” 

President Trump also praised special envoy Steve Witkoff, saying, “By the way, Steve Witkoff does a great job, you know it’s a very hard job, but I used him because he’s a very wonderful person that everybody likes, and he’s a good dealmaker.” 

Trump referred to the letters of thanks he has received from hostage families, saying, “I’ve had so many letters from parents and from the kids themselves and the people that got out.” 

“I got them back, Mark,” Trump continued. “You wouldn’t have even had any, none of these people would have been back, but I got them back.” 

Trump said he worked with Netanyahu to return the hostages before turning to talk about the cooperation between the U.S. and Israel during the Iran War. 

“I worked with your friend, Bibi, he’s a good man,” Trump stated. “He’s in there fighting.” 

“You know they’re trying to put him in jail on top of everything else, how about that,” Trump claimed. 

“He’s a war hero,” Trump went on to say, “Cause we worked together. He’s a war hero.” 

Trump then stated that he is also a war hero, since he cooperated with Netanyahu during the bombing campaign on Iran’s nuclear sites. 

“I guess I am too. Nobody cares,” Trump stated. “I am too, I mean, I sent those planes. You know, 22 years. The pilots came, I rewarded them, I brought them all into the Oval Office, the people having to do with that operation, which was so perfect, which was a total obliteration.” 

Trump again called out CNN, accusing the network of trying to downplay the success of the bombing mission. 

“They tried to say, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t as good as Trump said it was…’ They’re just such bad people,” Trump said. “It turned out it was even more so than I said, it was obliteration.” 

Later, Trump said he believes Iran was close to producing nuclear weapons. 

“I think they would have had nuclear weapons in a period of four weeks,” he told Levin. 

“As far as Hamas is concerned, I said two weeks ago, I said it a long time ago, ‘Ultimately you’re going to have to fight like hell,’” Trump stated, saying, “Everyone’s forgotten about October 7th.” 

Trump appeared to be referencing recent comments, similar to those he made at the beginning of the week, when he posted to social media, saying, “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!” 

“The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” Trump wrote. 

President Trump also blasted the Democrats for not supporting Israel more strongly in the fight against Hamas, calling Jewish Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian.” 

“Schumer’s a Palestinian,” Trump said to laughs from host Mark Levin. “He’s right now a Palestinian senator. We call him the Palestinian senator from New York.”