Donald Trump told the media that he was “not thrilled” and “very unhappy” after Israel’s strike targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, but offered only mild condemnation of the attack itself as the United Nations called it a “flagrant” violation of international law.
Israel confirmed that it struck a target in Doha on Tuesday in an effort to kill Hamas negotiators and leaders. Initial statements from Hamas indicated that only junior members of the militant group were killed.
The president made his first on-camera remarks about the strike during a gaggle with members of the White House press pool Tuesday evening as he stepped into a swanky D.C. eatery, Joe’s Stone Crab. He’d previously issued a statement on Truth Social, and told reporters that more complete remarks would come on Wednesday.
“I’m not thrilled about the whole situation, not a good situation, but I will say this, we want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down,” said Trump. “I’ll be giving a full statement tomorrow, but I will tell you this: I was very unhappy about it. Very unhappy about every aspect; we’ve got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy about the way that went down.”
On Truth Social, the only other tidbit of note was the president’s declaration that he’d informed Qatari leaders that such a strike wouldn’t be carried out again.
But it’s unclear how Trump will do that, given his total unwillingness thus far to take any noticeable measure to rein in Israel, which remains his administration’s closest political ally in the Middle East.
Tuesday’s development likely did more than just figuratively blow up peace talks (less than 48 hours after the U.S. president raised hopes for a deal)– it also likely killed any lingering momentum for an expansion of the Abraham Accords and could very well set back efforts for normalization of relations around the region for years.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Sunday evening after returning from the U.S. Open, renewed optimism around the idea that a deal could be reached to secure both the return of living Israeli hostages held by Hamas as well as the remains of those killed by the militant group or dead in captivity. He’d threatened on Truth Social that Hamas was facing his “last warning”: accept a deal to end the war, or else.
“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,” he posted. “This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”
Israel’s targeting of Hamas negotiators on Tuesday will once again force the president and his team to answer whether Benjamin Netanyahu and, by extension, his U.S. allies truly support a peace deal. Netanyahu’s government has faced scathing criticisms from families of hostages for focusing on eradicating Hamas and securing territory over securing the return of hostages; it has been months since a ceasefire deal led to the return of 25 hostages in February.
At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt read from an official statement as she condemned the strike as running counter to the interests of both Israel and the United States, while stopping short of any further criticism of the Netanyahu government or insinuating that it was not approaching peace talks in good faith.
Her statement also indicated that the U.S. was now running damage control to protect its relationship with the Qatari government, which Trump and Leavitt both indicated was only notified minutes before the strike took place.
The president “feels very badly about the location of this attack,” said Leavitt almost apologetically on Tuesday.
Trump “spoke to the Amir and Prime Minister of Qatar and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country,” and “assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil,” she continued.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, meanwhile, said that the attack “constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar.”
The U.S. president’s frustration with the two main focuses of his campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, could be on the verge of boiling over.
As the White House issued statements about the Israeli strike on Tuesday, news also broke that the president had reportedly phoned in to a call with European leaders with a startling demand: raise tariffs on India and China to 100% in a move to pressure Vladimir Putin.
That news broke just hours after another post from the president on Truth Social claimed that the U.S.-India relationship was strong, that Trump would be speaking with Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon, and that trade barriers between the two countries would potentially disappear.
