Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel nominee, told Newsmax on Monday that Palestinian terror group Hamas should know that President Donald Trump means what he says and says what he means.
During an appearance on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Huckabee said that Hamas had better release the remaining Oct. 7 hostages it's holding in Gaza "because President Trump is not a person to trifle with and fool around with."
"He's been very clear that Hamas is going to have no future in the governance of Gaza," Huckabee said. "He's been adamant that they need to let the hostages go, or they'll have hell to pay. If they don't take him seriously, they will rue the day they didn't. And I'm just sad that so many people have lost their lives, not only in Israel, but also people in Gaza.
"And they did it, not because of the Israelis; they've lost their lives because of a terror group. Not a government, not a standing army, but a terror group called Hamas, funded by the Iranians."
The situation with Iran should always be taken "seriously," Huckabee said, "because these are people that basically have one goal and that's annihilating all the infidels," adding the Iranian targets include the United States.
"That's not just Israel, that's us too," he said. "I've often said that Israel is the appetizer, but the U.S. is the entrée. And so when Americans say, 'We don't care what happens there,' well you better because they target us eventually. And I just think people need to realize that Donald Trump had the Iranian government pretty much bankrupted in his first term.
"The maximum pressure campaign that he put on them was incredibly effective and there was no attack from Hamas, the Houthis or Hezbollah. Why? They didn't have any money because Donald Trump bankrupted them. He didn't have to bomb them; bankrupting them was even more effective.
"[Former President] Joe Biden comes in, takes all the restrictions off," he continued. "They suddenly become flush with cash. What do they do with it? They fund terrorism and a lot of innocent civilians have been massacred because of it. Now President Trump is back putting the pressure on, the Iranians are feeling it. In the meantime, the Israelis carried out military strikes that pretty much decimated a big part of their military capacity and that's where we are today."
Huckabee also commented on the new sweeping evacuation order that Israel has issued for southern Gaza, saying it points to the regard the Jewish state has for saving as many lives as possible.
"Who else ever tells people where they're going to hit so that they can get out of the way if they truly are innocent civilians?" he said. "Now, Hamas will mass those civilians in the way and try to see as many of them killed as possible, because they simply don't care about their own people. But what Israel has done is to say, 'We want the hostages out. We don't trust anything that Hamas is saying or doing, and if they do not let those hostages out, the military action will resume.'"
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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