Trump Tells Evangelicals: Obama Has ‘Forsaken’ Israel
Donald Trump pumped up his pro-Israel credentials in a meeting with more than 1000 conservative Christian and evangelical leaders in New York City on Tuesday.
Fielding questions about faith, social issues, immigration and Israel, Trump reportedly told the crowd, “I’m 100 percent for Israel.¨
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also fed the evangelical crowd some red meat, slamming President Obama over his treatment of Israel. “I can’t imagine Bibi [Netanyahu] likes Obama too much,” Trump said, according to The Brody File. “He’s totally forsaken Israel.”
According to the report, Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of Samaritan’s Purse, likened Trump to the biblical and Jewish forefathers, “citing the fact that Abraham lied, Moses disobeyed God and David committed adultery and murder.”
During the meeting, Trump bragged that he won the Jewish vote, “where we had Jewish population” in the GOP primary.
UPDATE: Yahoo News posted a transcript of the meeting which was closed to the press.
Read Trump’s full comments on Israel below:
“I’m 100 percent for Israel. I have been forever. It is an amazing country. It has been shunned by the United States, in favor of Iran and others. Nobody knows what’s going on. The Iran deal is one of the worst deals I’ve ever seen. I’m not even talking about country to country. I’m just talking as a negotiation. They should use that as a study at the Wharton School of Finance on how not to do a deal. [Laughter] We gave everything, including we’re giving them back $150 billion, and now they’re going around buying anything they want, including probably nuclear weapons. I said, they won’t have to make ’em, they can buy ’em. In particular, it was a horrible deal for Israel. So many of my friends are Jewish. In all fairness, they supported Obama over the years. I would say, “Why are you doing this? He’s a disaster for Israel.” They love Israel, they fight for Israel, and then they support Obama.
“If you look at Bibi Netanyahu, I don’t know if he’s said it publicly, but I can’t imagine that he likes Obama too much. [Laughter] He has forsaken these people for Iran and others, but Iran in particular. And, folks, Iran has become a major power. They’re gonna take over Iraq. I was against the war in Iraq, but I was totally against the way we got out of Iraq as well. I said, “Keep the oil, keep the oil, keep the oil.” They didn’t keep the oil. In the old days of going to war, you’d keep it, right? To the victor go the spoils. Folks, honestly? We have stupid people leading this country.
“I could say it — I went to an Ivy League school, I could say it much nicer than that. But there’s no better description. [Laughter] And now Israel’s almost like lost to our country. We will bring that back, and we will bring it back fast. We’re going to be close to Israel.”