Cheney slams ‘dangerous’ Trump for attacking Israel, praising Hezbollah in Wednesday speech

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called out former President Trump Thursday for his remarks criticizing Israel and calling the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah “very smart.”

“​​After Hamas slaughters hundreds of Jewish families, and Israel confronts an unprecedented security crisis, Donald Trump attacks the Israeli govt and praises Hezbollah terrorists,” Cheney wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Are Republicans really going to nominate this dangerous man to be President of the United States?” she added. 

Trump delivered a speech in West Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday expressing his frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and praising the intellect of Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based militant group that reportedly fired an anti-tank missile at Israeli army positions in recent days.

“You know, Hezbollah is very smart,” Trump said, after describing how the group had picked up on U.S. military assessments that Israel was vulnerable in the north. “They’re all very smart.”

Trump also complained that Netanyahu had failed to help the U.S. drone strike in 2020 that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general who led the elite Quds Force, but then claimed credit for it after the fact.

“I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down,” Trump said. “That was a very terrible thing.”

Trump has also argued that the Hamas attack on Israel over the weekend wouldn’t have happened if he were still in the White House.

Cheney has been among the most frequent GOP critics of Trump for years. She was among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and then was one of two GOP members of the House committee that investigated the attack.

Cheney’s anti-Trump stance has cost her politically, with the once high-ranking Republican ousted from her leadership position in 2021 and then unseated by Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman in her state’s primary race last year.

Her latest remarks come as prominent figures on both sides of the political aisle — along with Israeli officials — have called out Trump for attacking Israel’s leader amid the fallout of a devastating attack that has traumatized the country.

“Terrorists have murdered at least 1,200 Israelis and 22 Americans and are holding more hostage, so it is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as ‘very smart,’” Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote in a Wednesday night post on X. 

“As President, I will stand with Israel and treat terrorists like the scum that they are.”