"How a Jewish person can vote for a Democrat is beyond me,” US President Donald Trump said during a CNBC interview in the Oval Office on Thursday.
The US president defended in the interview his decision to go to war with Iran, claiming that “this is not a war per se. This is the de-nuking of Iran.”
“You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” he argued, adding that the four months that the war has lasted is a relatively short amount of time.
He also claimed that he “was the best president in the history of Israel, and they admit it.”
“We are respected again as a country, maybe like never before. A year and a half ago, we were laughed at. They’re not laughing anymore,” he said, adding that the US has “had some very bad presidents.”
“You know, other presidents are not considered a strong office; even if you’re president, you can’t do as much,” he said. According to CNBC, he appeared to be referring to other countries’ presidents.
'Not one ship got through to Iran,' Trump says
When asked about the Strait of Hormuz, the US president claimed that “not one ship got through to Iran,” which CNBC said suggested the US blockade of the waterway was not breached.
“It was a wall of steel,” said Trump.
Information from the shipping industry indicates, however, that the blockade was breached multiple times by an Iranian shadow fleet, CNBC said, citing Lloyd’s List, an analysis service that covers global maritime patterns.
Additionally, Trump repeatedly claimed that Iran would buy agricultural products from the US as part of the ceasefire deal.
Tehran, however, has refuted this statement, according to CNBC.
“They’re making no money, so we’re going to take some of the money, and we’re going to buy them,” Trump said. “They need food. They need corn and wheat and soybeans, and we’re going to have exclusively our American farmers provide.”
Trump argued that the proceeds Tehran has gathered from the easing of US sanctions will go towards buying food from the US, not rebuilding Iran’s military.
However, the Governor of Iran’s central bank, Abdolnaser Hemmati, said the deal does not include an “obligation to buy agricultural inputs from the US,” CNBC said, citing the Iranian news agency Tasnim.