President Donald Trump formally endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection on Sunday. The move angered critics on the left and some of Trump’s own “America First” supporters.
Trump posted the endorsement on Truth Social as a letter “To the Great People of Israel.” He called Netanyahu “a great warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater partner for peace in the fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“If Israel has the wrong leader, meaning anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do the job itself, and I have no inclination to do so,” Trump wrote. “Please consider this letter my full and complete endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu in his next race for reelection as Prime Minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu will never let you down!”
Axios reporter Barak Ravid was among the first to flag the post. Netanyahu answered with a video saying that only he and Trump would destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the wording worried him.
“I may be reading too much into this statement, and I certainly hope I am wrong,” he wrote. “But it is hard not to interpret it as suggesting that Netanyahu promised Trump another joint military operation against Iran in exchange for his political support.”
“Israel cannot afford another war with Iran driven by political calculations rather than a genuine national security necessity,” he added.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, pointed to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu in 2024 over the war in Gaza.
“Netanyahu has committed genocide, yet Trump endorses him,” Roth wrote. “I suppose that’s not worse than aiding and abetting the genocide, which Trump also did.”
Some of the sharpest criticism came from the right. Conservative commentator Breck Worsham, who posts as ThePatrioticBlonde, called the endorsement a “slobber filled love letter of idolatry.”
“Trump just once again endorsed Netanyahu, KNOWING how much the American people hate him, KNOWING how much the American people detest Israel,” she wrote. “He just continues to give the middle finger to the country he was elected to represent.”
Rich Baris, director of the right-leaning Big Data Poll, noted that the endorsement came hours after a report said Trump wouldn’t weigh in on Israel’s election.
“Welp, that was wrong. He did,” Baris wrote.
The endorsement comes more than six months into Trump’s war with Iran, which polls show is deeply unpopular with American voters.