Iran “tried to play” President Donald Trump, which led to U.S. strikes on three of Tehran’s nuclear facilities this weekend,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday.

Rubio told anchor Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Trump sent a letter months ago to Iran emphasizing how the regime would not be allowed to have nuclear weapons and that he wanted negotiations to achieve a peaceful resolution. But, he emphasized, that did not happen.

“They tried to play him along the way they’ve played every American president for the last 35 years and the president told them, ‘If we don’t get a deal’ — which is what we wanted — ‘then I’ll have to handle it differently.’ And that’s what he did last night. He handled it differently,” Rubio said. “But that was an Iranian choice. We didn’t make that choice. They did by playing games with Donald Trump, they made a huge mistake.”

Rubio declared that the world now is “safer” and “more stable” than it was 24 hours ago, prior to the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“And a bunch of these countries, putting out statements condemning us — privately, they all agree with us — that this needed to be done. They got to do what they got to do for their own public relations purposes, but the only people in the world that are unhappy about what happened in Iran last night is the regime,” Rubio said.

Rubio stressed that the United States has bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to protect those countries from Iran and its terrorist network of proxy groups spread across the region.

“Why does Hezbollah exist? “Why does Hamas exist? Because of Iran. How do the Houthis exist? Because of Iran. Who built the IEDs that maimed and killed American soldiers in Iraq? Iran. They’re behind every problem in this region. They are the sole source of instability in the entire Middle East. And the world has been paying a price for this for 40 something years,” Rubio said.

“Imagine those people having a nuclear weapon,” he added. “Just one. Just one nuclear weapon. Or even the capability to — being on the threshold of having a nuclear weapon. That’s what the world was facing. That is unacceptable. President Trump did the world a favor last night.”

In response to President Trump’s bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, two enormous signs were displayed along Tel Aviv’s main highway, in a city where Iranian ballistic missiles have rained down for a week.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” the signs stated.

Tel Aviv's main highway today 👇

🇺🇲🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/cg394XxCkS

— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) June 22, 2025

Trump, by most accounts, has been the most supportive president Israel has ever known; his record of support for Israel is unmatched by any other president, and has included moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights, and brokering the historic Abraham Accords.

In return, the citizens of Israel have been open about their love for Trump; one week before the November 2024 election, Israel’s Channel 12 took a poll asking Israelis who they favored in the 2024 election. Trump received a whopping 66% of the vote with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris receiving a paltry 17%.

🇺🇸🇮🇱 New Poll by Channel 12:

66% of Israelis favor Trump to win
17% favor Harris.

The majority of Israelis support Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/LRRU48K0Z6

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) October 28, 2024

Two months before the 2024 election, Trump stated, “We’re gathered tonight to talk about the sacred bond between the United States and Israel, and it’s a bond that’s in serious trouble. In less than three weeks, we will mark the one-year anniversary of the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. On October 7, Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis, including men, women, children, and even little, beautiful babies. They tortured, wounded, kidnapped, and horribly maimed thousands more. Unthinkable.”

“This evening, we repeat the vow that we have kept in our hearts since the terrible day in October: Never again,” he declared. “This should never have ever happened. … Weak leadership in the United States allowed this to happen, and it should never have happened.”

“If we continue down our current path, with four more years of Kamala, Israel will be faced not just with an attack, but with total annihilation,” he asserted. “You don’t have a protector. You have a big protector in me; you don’t have a protector on the other side. And I’ve said long and loud, anybody, and especially over the last few years, anybody who’s Jewish and loves being Jewish and loves Israel is a fool if they vote for a Democrat.”

Israel will face “unceasing, bloody war to obliterate the Jewish state and drive Jews out of the Holy Land. That’s what they want to do. They want to drive Jews out of the Holy Land,” he said.

“Let me spell out bluntly the danger of four more years of weakness in this White House,” he warned. “If Kamala is re-elected, Iran will quickly obtain nuclear weapons. … Iran will, right now, quickly obtain nuclear weapons capable of killing millions and millions of people, Jewish people, non-Jewish people. There’s no discrimination with nuclear weapons. … the regime will be free to unleash its militant terror brigades to turn the Jewish homeland into hell on earth. They’ve already started with October 7. Rockets will rain down from above until the Iron Dome has been exhausted. … Terrorist death squads will conduct constant raids into Israeli territory from all sides, going door-to-door and torturing, raping, kidnapping, and massacring innocent civilians.”