Did Trump blame ‘hummus’ for attacks on Israel?

Republican candidate ridiculed for confusing militants with chickpea dip

Always at the cutting edge of foreign policy debates, it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump initially blamed “hummus” for carrying out the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.

At a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the wake of the violence carried out by the terrorist group Hamas, Mr Trump mispronounced the name several times, appearing to refer instead to “hummus”.

In confusing the militant organisation with the popular chickpea dip of the region, the former president committed the same blunder once made, rather more intentionally, by Sacha Baron Cohen’s alter ego Bruno.

A clip of the speech went viral on social media and the former president was roundly mocked by TV host Jimmy Kimmel.

Visibly aghast, Mr Kimmel asked in the opening monologue to his show: “Could you imagine anyone else in the world doing anything even remotely like that?

“The guy who claims to be the most pro-Israel president of all time was in Cedar Rapids on Saturday demonstrating the deep well of insight he has into this ongoing conflict in the Middle East.”

He continued: “Yes the hummus, the baba ghanoush, what they’re doing is a disgrace.”

The former president was also deservedly ridiculed on social media.

Donald Trump is being mocked for mispronouncing Hamas as ‘hummus’ (AP)

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the MeidasTouch, shared the clip with the caption: “Apparently, Israel was attacked by hummus.”

Another person commented: “I’ll be damned if you think I’m gonna stay quiet on Facebook while Hummus attacks Israel.”

Following the attack by Hamas on Israel, Mr Trump took to his own Truth Social platform to claim that the attack never would have happened while he was president.

“THE HORRIBLE ATTACK ON ISRAEL, MUCH LIKE THE ATTACK ON UKRAINE, WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF I WERE PRESIDENT – ZERO CHANCE!” he said.

During his speech at the rally in Iowa on the same weekend of the assault on Israel, Mr Tump repeated this claim and also shifted the blame for the attack onto Democrats, stating falsely that American taxpayer dollars had funded it.