Donald Trump responded to Iran’s Saturday attack on Israel by reposting a 2018 all-caps tweet in which he threatened the president of Iran and said the US would not stand for “DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH.”
“To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!” read the 2018 tweet.
Trump posted a screenshot on his social media platform, Truth Social, of the Florida senator Rick Scott praising the message.
While US president, Trump’s foreign policy was often chaotic and upended many traditional norms of US and international diplomacy. He was frequently criticized for his closeness to authoritarian figures such as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, and for undermining traditional pillars of western power such as Nato.
Trump originally tweeted the message in 2018 amid escalating tensions with Iran. It came after the then Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, warned the US that a war with Iran would be the “mother of all wars”.
Trump’s message underscores how quickly he is willing to escalate tensions with foreign leaders during moments of conflict.
Joe Biden had warned Iran not to attack Israel following a 1 April airstrike in which Israel killed a top Iranian military commander in Syria. Biden is reportedly urging Israel not to respond to Saturday’s attack with force and has said the US will not participate in a counterstrike against Iran.
Trump also addressed Iran’s attack on Israel during a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
“They’re under attack right now. That’s because we show great weakness,” he said during a rally in Schnecksville, in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. “The weakness that we’ve shown is unbelievable, and it would not have happened if we were in office.”
As conflict has roiled Israel for months, Trump has said little publicly about how he would handle the issue if he gets a second term in the White House. Trump has previously said the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “let us down” before the US killed a top Iranian commander in 2020. Trump has also praised Hezbollah, the Iranian-aligned group in Lebanon designated terrorists by the US, as “very smart”.
