Donald Trump retweeted an all-caps tweet from 2018 in response to Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday, in which he threatened the Iranian president and said the United States would not tolerate “crazy rhetoric of violence and death.”
“To Iranian President Rouhani: Never, ever threaten the United States again, or you will suffer consequences that few in history have ever suffered. We are no longer a country that tolerates your crazy rhetoric of violence and death. Be careful! ” read the 2018 tweet.
Trump posted a screenshot of Florida Sen. Rick Scott praising the news on his social media platform “Truth Social.”
During his tenure as U.S. president, Trump’s foreign policy was often chaotic and upended many traditional norms of U.S. and international diplomacy. He has often been criticized for his close ties to authoritarian figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and for undermining traditional pillars of Western power such as NATO.
Trump originally tweeted the tweet in 2018 as tensions with Iran escalated. Earlier, then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the United States that war with Iran would be “the mother of all wars.”
Trump’s message underscored how quickly he is willing to escalate tensions with foreign leaders in times of conflict.
Joe Biden warned Iran not to attack Israel after an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Iranian military commander in Syria on April 1. Biden reportedly urged Israel not to respond to Saturday’s attack with force and said the United States would not participate in a counterattack against Iran.
Trump also addressed Iran’s attacks on Israel at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“They’re under attack right now. It’s because we’ve shown tremendous vulnerability,” he told a rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. “The weakness we have shown is incredible and this would not have happened if we were in office.”
As the conflict has dogged Israel for months, Trump has said little publicly about how the White House would handle the issue if he were re-elected. Trump previously said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “let us down” before the United States killed a top Iranian commander in 2020. Being designated a terrorist by the United States “disappoints us very much.” clever”.
