In Disjointed Speech, Trump Talks Gaza, Storm, Migrants and ‘Full Metal Jacket’

In unfocused remarks that frequently veered into tangents, former President Donald J. Trump responded on Tuesday to Iran’s launching a missile attack against Israel by insisting that the world was nearing global devastation, criticizing President Biden’s leadership and falling back on his frequent hypothetical that he would have prevented the crisis in the Middle East had he won in 2020.

“They are very close to global catastrophe,” Mr. Trump said during a speech in Waunakee, Wis., a town of about 15,000 people near Madison.

Mr. Trump did not provide any details of how he might quell the war in Gaza or otherwise address the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran that has heightened tensions throughout the region.

He falsely claimed Iran went broke under sanctions that were imposed while he was president and argued that the Biden administration had not taken a tough enough stance toward the country.

But Mr. Trump’s remarks about Iran’s attack against Israel were characterized more by his digressions than by his response to world events. As he insisted that he would restore global stability and criticized “a nonexistent president and a nonexistent vice president,” Mr. Trump departed from his prepared remarks in order to criticize San Francisco, attack Vice President Kamala Harris’s response to Hurricane Helene, stoke fears around immigration, blast the prisoner swap deal with Russia that freed Brittney Griner, repeat his false claims of widespread election fraud and relitigate whether the 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket” should have won Academy Awards.

At one point, as he insisted that there would not have been a war in Gaza had he won in 2020, he abruptly pivoted.