U.S. President Donald Trump’s full-throated endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t just jeopardize the electoral hopes of Republican lawmakers in competitive seats, theorizes former U.S. counterterrorism chief Joe Kent.
The endorsement also directly meddles in Israel’s internal politics by telling the Israelis that the United States might not continue the war against Iran — supposedly crucial to Israel’s survival — if they vote against the prime minister. And that is “dangerous” for Israel, a writer for Haaretz concluded.
Which in turn means that Trump has turned the admonition of his primordial predecessor, George Washington, on its head. The first president warned against America’s entangling itself in the disputes of other nations. Trump has rushed headlong into one of those disputes.
From “Crazy” to “Great Warrior”
Trump’s unreserved endorsement, Haaretz writer Esther Solomon observed, comes after his summertime attack when he called Netanyahu “crazy.”
Trump was furious about Israel’s military operations in Lebanon.
Citing inside sources, Axios spilled the beans about a phone call between the two.
“Two of the sources said Trump claimed he’d helped keep Netanyahu out of jail — a reference to his support during Netanyahu’s corruption trial,” Axios reported:
Summarizing Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official said: “You’re f**king crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
A second source briefed on the call said Trump was “p**sed” and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: “What the f**k are you doing?”
President Trump says reports about a phone call in which he went off on Benjamin Netanyahu are true.
Trump says he called Netanyahu "crazy" and reminded him that he had kept him out of jail.
Trump says he is sick of Netanyahu's constant fighting with Lebanon.
"Bibi, we gotta… pic.twitter.com/MdR44aSxbC
But yesterday, Trump warbled a new tune. Netanyahu might be the greatest prime minister in the annals of prime ministers.
Addressing the “great people of Israel” directly, Trump wrote that “Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran, with its 51 year old chant, ‘Death to Israel, Death to America! We will destroy the Little Satan and the Big Satan.’”
Then Trump bluntly told the Israelis they better re-elect his buddy “Bibi” … or else the United States will abandon Israel to Iran’s depredations:
Unless [Iran changes its] ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job. If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so.
Netanyahu is “Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself,” Trump continued. And while “normal men” would collapse under such “pressure,” “Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today.”
“Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel. BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump concluded.
President Trump, my friend Donald – thank you for your extraordinary endorsement. Israel has never had a greater friend in the White House. Together we will never let Iran's regime get nuclear weapons. Thank you for your clarity, courage and unwavering support.@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/GqaOVB74Dj
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 18, 2026Bibi was just as effusive in his reply. He was “so honored and humbled” by an endorsement from his “dear friend, Donald.” Trump, he said, is “laser focused” on ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.
“Let me say to the American people,” Netanyahu said:
If you’re worried about today’s gas prices, think of what will happen if Iran gets nuclear weapons, something that Donald Trump and I will never allow. And when that happens, when that threat of that regime disappears, gas prices will go down — and how. But only under Trump. It’s not going to happen with those who want to accommodate and appease these tyrants, these butchers. I have to say that the world has been fortunate, America has been fortunate, America’s allies have been fortunate, Israel has been fortunate, and the Jewish people have been fortunate to have a leader of such clarity, consistency, conviction, and courage as Donald J. Trump.
Dangerous for Israel and the GOP
Trump has been a Netanyahu camp follower for years, Solomon wrote, and his endorsement won’t end in a majority vote for the prime minister because “no amount of flowery presidential language will budge” voters infuriated with Netanyahu’s policies.
But Solomon also targeted Trump’s threat: If Netanyahu loses, no more war with Iran.
“Trump’s endorsement was wrapped in a threat — if Israelis don’t vote for Netanyahu, then the president would ‘not [be] inclined’ to ‘finish the job’ with Iran,” she wrote:
Not only has Netanyahu legitimized an unprecedented act of interference in Israel’s internal affairs, but for the sake of that support, he has tethered Israel to an imminent, explicitly politically motivated, round of conflict with Iran.
Kent said much the same thing to X podcaster Mario Nawfal.
Wondering how much control the “pro-Israel lobby” and Netanyahu have over Trump, Kent called Trump’s endorsement “political suicide.” It will “hurt every single Republican” whom Trump endorsed, including those in red states — and particularly those in purple states where every vote counts. “This does not help anybody on the Republican ticket that is trying to get across the finish line,” he said.
“Every single Democrat out there that’s running against a Republican in a competitive seat is going to use this to show that, like, look … the Republican party is not taking orders from the American people, they’re taking [them] from Benjamin Netanyahu,” Kent said.
🇺🇸🇮🇱 Every calculation Trump makes runs through political survival, except this one.
Fmr. Dir. U.S. National Counterterror Joe Kent says endorsing Netanyahu is beyond political suicide, hurting every Republican in competitive seats while handing Democrats a weapon.
The endorsement raises one of the “the biggest questions of our time,” Kent continued. “Why did we get into this war? Why is President Trump doing all of these things that are against his base?”
But he also said what Solomon did. Trump has told the Israelis that “if you guys don’t elect Bibi, then I’m not really inclined to finish the Iran war,” Kent said. It’s “almost telling the Israelis … you’re kind of on your own unless you give me my guy.”
George Washington’s Admonition Turned on Its Head
Trump’s endorsement reverses George Washington’s warnings. “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible,” he said in his farewell address of September 19, 1796:
So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. … ’Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world.
