U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday in an interview with Kan News that it is “very likely” he will back Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s next election, but only after seeing who Netanyahu will face. Trump said, “It is very likely that I will support Netanyahu in the upcoming elections, but I need to see who is running. I have a good relationship with Bibi, but he needs to be more rational. I am ready to meet him.”
The comments came after several days of Trump attacks on Netanyahu, including sharp criticism earlier in the week over an Israeli strike in Beirut’s Dahieh district. In a Fox News interview, Trump said he was furious about the operation and accused Netanyahu of poor judgment, saying he had made that clear to him. He later added that Netanyahu should not have carried it out and warned against an endless cycle of retaliation in the Middle East.
Trump also told The New York Times that Netanyahu is “a very difficult person” and should be grateful to the United States, arguing that if Iran had nuclear weapons, “Israel would not exist after two hours.”
In the same New York Times interview, Vice President JD Vance defended the Iran understanding and criticized Israeli political backlash. He said parts of Israel’s political system and public were being exposed to misleading information and were “panicking” over the agreement. He added that the deal would be good “for the whole region and the whole world,” including Israelis, but stressed that the U.S. would act according to American interests when those diverged from Israeli political goals.
Vance singled out ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for attacking the memorandum of understanding and told them to let negotiations continue. Ben Gvir replied on X that his proposal was to confront “the Nazis of the 21st century” as the U.S. dealt with the Nazis in World War II.
