Mike Huckabee, recently tapped as President Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, made a forceful statement on Newsmax Monday, warning Hamas not to underestimate Trump’s resolve.
Appearing on the network’s “Wake Up America,” Huckabee issued a stern message to the Palestinian terror organization: release the hostages still being held since the October 7 attacks or face severe consequences. “Because President Trump is not a person to trifle with and fool around with,” he said.
“He’s been very clear that Hamas is going to have no future in the governance of Gaza,” Huckabee emphasized. “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.”
Huckabee also addressed the broader regional threat, cautioning that the Iranian regime must not be underestimated. “These are people that basically have one goal and that’s annihilating all the infidels,” he said, pointing out that the United States is among their targets.
“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.”
Huckabee argued that the shift in U.S. policy under President Biden led to a reversal of that pressure. “[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.”
He also spoke about Israel’s recent evacuation directive in southern Gaza, describing it as evidence of Israel’s desire to minimize civilian casualties.
“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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