Donald Trump lashed out at his likely 2024 general election opponent President Joe Biden after US and UK forces struck Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“So, let me get this straight,” the former president began in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning. “We’re dropping bombs all over the Middle East, AGAIN (where I defeated ISIS!), and our Secretary of Defence, who just went missing for five days, is running the war from his laptop in a hospital room.”
Secretary of defence Lloyd Austin has been criticised after spending days in hospital being treated for prostate cancer and being slow to notify the administration and the public.
“Remember, this is the same gang that ‘surrendered’ in Afghanistan, where no one was held accountable or FIRED,” Mr Trump claimed. “It was the most embarrassing ‘moment’ in the history of the United States. Now we have wars in Ukraine, Israel, and Yemen, but no ‘war’ on our Southern Border. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Crooked Joe Biden is the worst President in the history of the United States!”
Both Mr Biden and Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, have not ruled out further action against the Houthi rebels if deemed necessary. The rebels have warned of reprisal actions, saying that the strikes that they say killed five and wounded six would “not go unanswered and unpunished”.
“It’s clear that this type of behaviour can’t be met without a response,” Mr Sunak said. “We need to send a strong signal that this breach of international law is wrong. People can’t act like this with impunity and that’s why together with allies we’ve decided to take this action.”
The strikes came after the group launched its 26th attack on international shipping in the Red Sea since 19 November.
The armed group are supported by Iran and controls large parts of Yemen following nearly a decade of war against a coalition supported by the West and led by Saudi Arabia.
The group has taken its name from founder Hussein al-Houthi. The civil war began after he was killed by the Yemeni military in 2004. They have claimed that their attacks on international shipping are an attempt to stop Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, saying after Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attack that they would target all ships heading to Israel.
Several shipping companies have resorted to taking the massively longer route around the African continent instead of taking the Red Sea route via the Gulf of Aden to reach the Suez Canal.
