Trump says Israel ‘literally owned Congress’ a decade ago, today it’s the opposite

Washington (QNN)- Former US president Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Israel “literally owned Congress” until roughly a decade ago, whereas today, “it’s almost the opposite.”

“The biggest change I’ve seen in Congress is Israel literally owned Congress — you understand that — 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And it was so powerful. It was so powerful. And today it’s almost the opposite,” the former US president said in a radio interview with conservative talk show host Ari Hoffman last week.

Trump added, “You have between AOC (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and [Rep. Ilhan] Omar — and these people that hate Israel. They hate it with a passion — they’re controlling Congress, and Israel is not a force in Congress anymore. I mean, it’s just amazing. I’ve never seen such a change.”

Progressive Democrats Ocasio-Cortez and Omar only entered Congress in 2019.

He continued, “And we’re not talking about over a very long period of time, but I think you know exactly what I’m saying. They had such power, Israel had such power — and rightfully — over Congress, and now it doesn’t. It’s incredible, actually.”

Also in the radio interview, Trump reiterated claims that countries were “lining up” to join the so-called Abraham Accords before he lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden.

“We would’ve had peace in Middle East,” Trump said.

“Now I don’t think they can, because they’re dealing with Iran again and the way they’re dealing with them — the weakness is just incredible when you look at it.”

“I was affectionately told I could run for prime minister of Israel and win very easily. They like me over there,” he said before contrasting his popularity in ‘Israel’ with how Jews in the US felt about him.

“It’s incredible that I didn’t get the kind of a vote from Jewish people that you would think I would get. Jewish people in this country — many of them do not like Israel.”

“Look at The New York Times. The New York Times is vicious against Israel, and it’s just a terrible thing to watch,” he added.

Last June, he said in an interview with the ultra-Orthodox magazine Ami that American Jews do not love Israel enough, otherwise they would have voted for him in last year’s presidential election.

“American Jews don’t love Israel enough,” Trump told the magazine.

“You know what really surprised me?” Trump asked the interviewer.

“I did the Heights, I did Jerusalem, and I did Iran—the Iran Deal was a disaster, right? And I also did many other things,” Trump said, while referring to his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights and Jerusalem, as well as his withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

“Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough.”

“I’m not talking about Orthodox Jews. I believe we got 25% of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense,” Trump continued.

“It just seems strange to me,” Trump said, before exclaiming, “But I did very well in Florida. I did great in Florida.”

According to a 2019 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, American Jews were much more likely than their Christian counterparts to express criticism of his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with 42 percent agreeing with the statement that the then-president was favoring Israelis too much.

According to a Gallup poll released earlier that year, about half of American Jews identified as Democrats.

Following the 2020 presidential election, a poll commissioned by the Republican Jewish Coalition found that 30.5 percent of Jews voted for Trump, while a competing poll commissioned by the liberal group J Street found that 77 percent of Jewish Americans voted for Biden and only 21 percent for Trump.

“Trump pushed the Jewish vote further to the Democrats,” the group’s pollster wrote in a memo summarizing the results.

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