Fact check: Mostly false, needs context

Trump claimed that if he were in office, Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel would never have happened because the terror group’s main sponsor, Iran, “has no money for terror.” However, Iran has been Hamas’s main financial backer for decades, including during the Trump presidency. Records recovered from Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces and verified by independent news outlets suggest that Tehran funneled tens of millions of dollars into Gaza during the Trump administration. Two of Trump’s top advisers on Middle East affairs also claimed in a 2019 opinion piece that Iran supports Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups with $100 million each year.

Trump also said that Iran gained $300 billion because the Biden-Harris administration “lifted all the sanctions that I had imposed on Iran.”

The current U.S. administration has maintained sanctions on Iran and has even imposed new ones. But as it tries to renegotiate an Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from in 2018, the U.S. relaxed enforcement of some sanctions and restored a U.N. waiver that allowed companies from other countries to conduct nonproliferation work at Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran’s oil exports – its main source of revenue – have increased over the past four years, according to shipping data. However, experts estimate that Tehran has only been able to amass $100 billion at most during President Biden’s term, significantly less than Trump’s figure of $300 billion.