Trump says attack on Israel 'never' would have happened if he was president

Former President Donald Trump told the crowd at a Republican summit in Florida that if the 2020 presidential wasn't "rigged" against him, millions of people killed in global conflicts would still be alive.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was one of several GOP presidential candidates to address the crowd at the state Republican Party's Freedom Summit on Saturday in Kissimmee, Florida.

During his Saturday evening speech, the MAGA leader lamented President Joe Biden's victory in 2020, claiming that if he was in the White House instead the Hamas attack on Israel last month never would have happened.

"When you think of it, how important elections are, you'd have millions of people alive right now," Trump said during his speech. "If the election wasn't rigged, they'd be alive. Ukraine. Israel. The attack would have never been made. All these people would be alive. The cities would be thriving."

Newsweek reached out via email on Saturday to representatives for Trump for comment.

Trump's claims that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" and "stolen" have ignited mounting legal woes for the ex-president, with the Department of Justice (DOJ) accusing him of conspiring to overturn the election results. The DOJ case, which argues those baseless claims led to the deadly January 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, D.C., is part of the wave of legal scrutiny Trump is facing at both the state and federal levels. Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the four cases against him while saying that indictments are part of an orchestrated "witch hunt" by his political enemies as he campaigns for reelection.

In addition to his "rigged" election remarks, Trump weighed in on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war at several points during his speech.

In a clip of the speech shared to X, formerly Twitter, by Right Side Broadcasting Network, Trump said that during his presidency he "kept Israel safe."

"For four straight years under the Trump Administration, I kept America safe, I kept Israel safe, and I kept the entire world safe We were safe," Trump said. "This is shocking, what's going on. What's going on now is shocking all over the planet. Our enemies knew that if you try to kill our citizens, we will kill you. If you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of your blood."

During a speech last month, Trump's comments on the Israel-Hamas war sparked backlash for the former president after he praised Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah for being "very smart" after it launched a missile attack on Israel.

A few days after Hamas on October 7 led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history, Trump blasted the Israeli government for not being "ready" for the surprise attack during a speech in Palm Beach, Florida.

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi denounced Trump's remarks, reportedly calling out the former president for spreading what he characterized as anti-Israel "propaganda," while also suggesting that Israel "obviously" cannot rely on Trump as an ally.

As of Saturday, the war in the Middle East has left more 1,400 people in Israel dead, the Associated Press reported, while more than 9,400 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the ensuing strikes from Israel.