Van Hollen mocks Trump, says Netanyahu waited for president 'stupid enough' to start Iran war

WASHINGTON, DC: Senator Chris Van Hollen alleged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had long sought to unleash a war against Iran, and he finally found a president in Donald Trump “stupid enough” to make it happen.

The Democratic Senator was hammering the Trump administration’s handling of the Middle East conflict during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," when he accused Netanyahu of dragging the United States into the war.

"The president got dragged into this war. Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he’d been waiting 40 years for somebody to go to war with him in Iran. He found a president stupid enough to do it. I blame Donald Trump for that decision, but here we are,” he said.

Van Hollen claims Trump doesn’t need China to stop war

As the president returned from his high-profile China trip without securing any concrete pledge from Chinese leaders to help end the conflict, Van Hollen argued that Washington does not need Beijing’s involvement to bring the war to a close.

"I don’t think we need China’s support," he said, arguing that Trump could stop the war by changing course. "I think the fastest way to end the war in Iran is just to stop digging a hole even deeper, and that’s what we should do right now,” he added.

The Maryland Democrat argued that Trump had campaigned on keeping US out of new wars and easing economic pressure on Americans, but said the ongoing conflict had effectively shattered both promises.

"After all, Donald Trump was the candidate who said he was going to keep us out of wars, and he was going to focus on bringing down prices, and of course he’s done just the opposite," Van Hollen said. "Gas and other prices are going through the roof."

When pressed on whether diplomacy could still pave the way for a renewed nuclear deal with Iran, Van Hollen pointed to the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the landmark 2015 agreement negotiated between Iran, and the United States.

"Well, I know if we had people who are willing to negotiate, we could get it done because we got that done when President Obama was in office," Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen questions Trump over his past Iran claims

At one point in the interview, Van Hollen brought back the President’s past claims that his administration had already destroyed Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

"Just last year, Donald Trump told the country that he had obliterated Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, taken care of it, and his head of DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, testified that they have no evidence that Iran wants to resume it," he maintained.

Chris Van Hollen’s remarks came just a week after Netanyahu told CBS’s 60 Minutes that Iran’s nuclear material would still need to be removed before the war could truly come to an end.

When asked how the highly enriched uranium should be dealt with, Netanyahu responded bluntly: “You go in, and you take it out.”

Meanwhile, the White House has continued defending the Iran operation as a necessary military campaign aimed at eliminating what it described as an “imminent nuclear threat,” claiming in June 2025 that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated.”