MAGA Rep. Nancy Mace hurled an expletive Tuesday as she learned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bragged on live TV that he manipulated Donald Trump into attacking Iran.
Viewers were left gasping as Netanyahu revealed he ran an "influence" campaign he claimed helped drag America into the widely unpopular war — that has now been going on for six months, has killed an estimated 18 Americans and left Trump's popularity ratings plummeting.
Mace was told about the claims as she walked what looked like a Havanese she called Millie into the Capitol Friday.
"If it's true, it's kind of f----ed up," said the South Carolina Republican, who is leaving Congress in January after stepping down to unsuccessfully run for governor. She added that she hadn't seen the video of the Israeli leader speaking.
Another MAGA-ally in Congress, Anna Paulina Luna (FL), also said she hadn't seen the video, but commented, " I will say, no-one can manipulate Trump."
Facing grim poll numbers ahead of October elections, Netanyahu sat down with Israeli network Channel 14 Sunday to make his case to voters. Speaking in Hebrew, he described decades of opposition to Iran and claimed it eventually paid off.
“I’ve been against Iran for almost 40 years… it took a long time to bring the United States to its senses,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew, according to Zeteo’s Prem Thakker.
“[I’ve had] close to 1,000 hours on American television with the ability to influence the United States — with the intimate knowledge of all its leaders, both those who support us and those who don’t support us — the ability to navigate this field, through it.”
“The gall," wrote Thakker. "In English, Netanyahu lavishes praise on U.S. leaders. In Hebrew, he boasts of how he manipulated them.”
And journalist Max Blumenthal wrote, “Netanyahu explicitly cites how the U.S. media has served as a compliant springboard, a vessel for his influence operation on, if not the populace, at least the consultants and members of Congress who engage with cable news more than their actual constituents.”
Bloomberg reported in March that a White House insider revealed Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran was “partly motivated by pressure from outside allies” — chief among them being Netanyahu.
Speculation that Netanyahu had “pulled” Trump into the deeply unpopular conflict was so strong that Trump felt compelled to respond: “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran,” he wrote in a social media post in late April.
Mace, who already owns a Havanese called Liberty and who insiders say recently adopted Millie, stopped to talk to a protester outside the Capitol who was holding a sign that read: "$40,000,000,000,000 Rick4Dictator.com" and told Raw Story he was planning a presidential run.
"I needed an animal in my life," she told him. "Another one."
Netanyahu appeals to Israeli voters by boasting that he manipulated Trump:
“it took a long time to get the US to come to its senses” but I finally got it to attack Iran due to my “influence” over its leaders through “1000 hours on American television” pic.twitter.com/hwrswfkbv2
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 31, 2026