‘Delusional’: Bolton blasts Trump for saying Iranian attacks wouldn’t have happened on his watch

Former President Donald Trump told supporters Saturday that Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend “would not have happened if we were in office.” His former national security adviser says it was a ridiculous statement.

“I just think Trump is delusional on this point,” John Bolton said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “It's a point that nobody can refute or confirm one way or the other. He doesn't have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation.”

At a rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, Trump said that both Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the Iranian aerial attacks on Israel “would not have happened if we were in office,” casting blame on what he described as President Joe Biden’s “weakness” abroad. He has previously said that about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Trump has attempted to use Biden’s response to the fighting in the Middle East as a campaign cudgel, painting himself as a greater ally to Israel as the White House has increased pressure on Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to mitigate the impact of their attacks on civilians in Gaza.

But Trump has also previously accused Jewish people who vote for Democrats of being sacrilegious, and recently knocked Israel for “losing the PR war” in its handling of the war in Gaza.

On ABC's "This Week," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he didn't want to respond to campaign rhetoric. "I won't get into comments from the campaign trail," he said, but added that Biden had been the first president to visit Israel during a war.

Bolton, who became a staunch Trump critic after leaving the former president’s administration, also slammed Biden’s response to the Iranian strikes.

“Look at Biden's actions in the past 24 hours, trying to persuade Israel not to respond. This is a measure of two candidates, neither one of whom is qualified at a point of enormous threat, not just to Israel's national security — let's be clear, what's happening in the Middle East is a threat to American national security. And we should be standing at Israel's to deal with the threat of Iran,” Bolton said.