It happened Wednesday night at a campaign rally. Trump was recounting the events and hours leading up to his decision to kill top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike outside the Baghdad airport. Trump told a cheering crowd that the Israeli prime minister "let us down" by backing out of participation in the covert operation at the last minute.

Trump also controversially said this week Israeli leaders need to "step up their game" as Netanyahu "was not prepared" for the deadly Saturday raid into southern Israel. He further called Hezbollah "very smart" while generally urging Israel to be more prepared and efficient. He had at one point called Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant a "jerk".

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, chief among Trump's 2024 rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted the somewhat impulsive words, saying "Now is not the time to be attacking our ally," - especially as the Israeli bodies and missing are still being counted. 

DeSantis also admitted that while "there's a lot of people that generally like Trump's policies," they are not "big fans" of his behavior, in a swipe at the story about Soleimani's death. 

But it was Chris Christie, also in the 2024 race, who went even more on the attack, calling Trump "a fool". 

"Only a fool would make those kinds of comments. Only a fool would give comments that give aid and comfort to Israel's adversary in this situation, and he always places it in the context of himself," the former New Jersey governor said.