Former President Donald Trump has cast himself as the most pro-Israel president in American history, pointing to achievements such as negotiating the Abraham Accords and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. 

But recent comments Trump made about Israel’s conduct during the ongoing war in Gaza and its public relations failures, along with his relative silence on the war for more than five months, are serving as a reminder that a second Trump term could mean more unpredictability over Middle East policy than his once-reliably pro-Israel posture. 

The interview, which Trump gave to the right-leaning Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, drew mixed reactions from Jewish Republicans and conservatives. 

“Israel has to be very careful, because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job done,” Trump told Israel Hayom. “I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to call [Israel] and say don’t do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, ‘Oh, that’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world.’”

Fred Zeidman, a major Houston-based donor to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s primary campaign who has now thrown his support behind Trump, acknowledged that Trump’s rhetoric represented a shift for him. But, Zeidman added, that language must be compared to Biden’s actions, including the White House’s decision last week not to veto the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire.

“It obviously concerns me. But again, that’s part of the reason that we’ve got to double our effort to show President Trump that we continue to be behind him, and he’s the one that we’re counting on,” Zeidman said. “President Trump has said a few things that aren’t as stridently in support as he has before. But there’s no comparison with what the Biden administration’s actually doing.”

One Jewish Republican who was close to the Haley campaign said Trump’s comments about Israel’s dwindling global support and its poor PR game only help Israel’s detractors.

“That is just fodder for antisemites and Israel’s enemies to grab onto and say, ‘Oh, Trump says Israel’s losing everyone,’” the Haley supporter said. “Trump’s silence, Trump’s refusal to offer a full-throated defense of Israel, I think is very, very unfortunate and hurts Israel.” 

Commentary editor John Podhoretz noted that Trump’s remarks, in substance, sound similar to the rhetoric Biden uses when trying to balance his support for Israel’s war against Hamas with frustration over the humanitarian toll of the conflict.

“You take people at their word, and I know that what [Trump] said is very vague and self-contradictory and all that. But he basically said, ‘It looks very bad, and they shouldn’t be doing it,’” Podhoretz said. “I don’t see how that’s any different from how the Biden people are talking, and Biden has actually at least been supportive of Israel’s war effort. Trump has been standing there not talking about it much at all.”

But in more partisan GOP circles, Jewish Republican officials insist Trump is giving Israel the space it needs to defeat Hamas — and is only concerned about the timetable.

In the Israel Hayom interview, Trump called the Oct. 7 attack “horrible” and said he “would act very much the same way as you did. You would have to be crazy not to.” But, he added, Israel needs to improve its public relations, “because right now they’re in ruin.”

“Everybody is just misreading this. There’s nothing interesting at all about it,” Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks told Jewish Insider. “Basically, he’s giving Israel a blank check to do what it needs to finish the job. All he’s saying is that the longer this goes on, public opinion continues to turn against them, so hurry up.”

Jeff Bartos, a real estate investor in Pennsylvania who ran in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2022, said Trump’s remarks didn’t sound too different from conversations he has been part of at dinner parties in recent months. 

“In fact, at dinner last Saturday, the two other couples we were with, all four of them said something along the lines of, ‘Israel needs better PR, and Israel’s PR is the worst ever,’” Bartos said. He added that he prefers to judge Trump by the actions he took as president. 

“I do believe actions speak louder than words, certainly as it relates to foreign policy. But I think that’s a pretty good general rule,” Bartos said. “I think President Trump’s record on supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship and supporting Israel I think is among the best, if not the best, we’ve seen in our lifetimes.” 

Trump told Israel Hayom that Hamas would not have attacked Israel if he were president because Biden is a “very dumb person” whom Hamas does not respect. Trump’s Republican critics agreed that Biden’s foreign policy had not made the world a safer place, but they did not place the blame for Oct. 7 at his feet. 

“I do think that Biden’s weakness in foreign policy does have consequences. It does send a message to America’s enemies, to our allies’ enemies, that says, ‘Yes, please, take advantage of us,’” said the Haley supporter. But, they added, Hamas has “been trying to do this for a decade. Whoever is sitting in the Oval Office, as long as Hamas exists, they’re going to try to kill Israelis. That’s why Israel has to defeat them.”

The interview came as many Trump-critical Republican donors have fallen in line behind the former president after he secured the GOP nomination. 

Last Thursday, another of Haley’s strongest supporters in the Jewish community, Eric Levine, sent an email to his network announcing that he would support Trump — after insisting, since the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, that he would not vote for the former president again. Levine decried the anti-Zionism on the left, and Biden’s reliance on far-left voters.

“On the one hand, Joe Biden needs the votes of those who embrace and advocate for the expansion of this evil. On the other hand, Donald Trump – whose grandchildren are being raised as proud American Orthodox Jews – wants to stamp it out. It leaves me no choice but to vote for Trump,” wrote Levine, a New York lawyer. He did not mention Trump’s comments on Israel in the email.

Other leading Trump-critical GOP donors have also indicated they’ll reconsider donating to the former president’s campaign, according to the Washington Post, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison (a top backer of Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential bid) and Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman.