Washington (QNN)- US President Donald Trump said that "if I weren't president, Israel would be gone. There would be no Israel and there would probably be no Middle East."
Referring to the assault on Iran, Trump told Fox News that he does not need a "signature on a piece of paper," adding that "their Navy is gone and the air force is gone and their leaders are gone" and that Iran's air defenses had been wiped out.
He called the Iranians "tough people and smart people" but "very evil."
Trump also said: "Do you think it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon? A nuclear weapon is massive destruction. You know, take what you see and multiply it times 100. And everybody says no."
Trump’s remarks came as Iran confirmed it has attacked US bases in Jordan and US military assets in the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for US strikes on Larak Island in the first active exchange between the two sides since late July.
The Iranian response came after the US claimed to have hit two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Most Americans and members of Congress have criticized Trump's decision to join Israel's attack on Iran, stating that "this is Israel’s war, not ours" and condemning the move as "unconstitutional."
When asked why the US attacked Iran, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed to Israel’s influence. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
More recently, Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in opposition to the war, saying that “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
In March, Netanyahu denied the reports that Israel dragged the US into the Iran war as “false news”. “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do,” he said, adding: “I misled no one.”
Netanyahu’s claims came after The New York Times reported that he played a central role in steering Trump toward a war with Iran, lobbying him personally for months and working to prevent diplomatic talks from derailing plans for a military offensive.
According to the report, Netanyahu first raised the prospect of hitting Iran’s missile sites during a visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in December. Two months later, he secured broader US involvement in a campaign aimed at bringing down the Iranian leadership.
"My biggest thing is just focus on the people who are actually in the country," said Anderson, who works two jobs in security and data collection and said he voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. "I know we have allies and things like that, but there’s a lot of people here that really need help."
