In a revealing interview with CNN, 22-year-old Israeli Omer Shem Tov, recently freed after 505 days in Hamas captivity, shared startling insights about his captors’ political views, particularly their reactions to the 2024 U.S. presidential election results.
According to Shem Tov, the militants were deeply unsettled by Donald Trump’s return to the presidency and openly expressed a preference for Vice President Kamala Harris to win instead. His account has sparked a wave of reactions, particularly among Trump supporters who view the remarks as an endorsement of the former president’s tough stance on foreign policy.
“The terrorists were very scared of (Trump). They wanted Kamala to be elected,” Shem Tov said during the interview, as reported by Fox News. “But as soon as Donald Trump was elected, they understood he wanted to bring the hostages back home. So immediately, the way they treated me changed. When Trump became president, the way they treated us changed, for me personally.”
Shem Tov described a marked shift in behavior following Trump’s election victory. “They started giving me more food, started treating me better. Stopped cursing me. Stopped spitting on me,” he recounted. The Israeli national was among those kidnapped during the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Nova music festival and was held until February 2025, when he was released in a negotiated deal involving several hostages.
He believes the change in his treatment was directly linked to Hamas’s fear of the Trump administration’s response and expectation that a hostage deal would be swiftly pursued. Shem Tov’s story gained further attention during a March visit to the White House, where he met with President Trump alongside other freed hostages.
During that meeting, he told the former president he believed his release was nothing short of divine intervention. “I felt the president was sent by God,” Shem Tov said. The comments have quickly circulated across social media, where Trump supporters hailed them as evidence of effective leadership.
One user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, “This says a lot. When America shows strength, our enemies notice and step back. That’s leadership we need.” While critics continue to debate Trump’s broader foreign policy legacy, Shem Tov’s testimony has added a new dimension to the political discourse, especially as the 2024 election’s global implications come into sharper focus.