After running hot and cold, Trump heaps praise on Netanyahu
Trump has showered Netanyahu with praise for leading a 12-day assault on Iran aimed at setting back Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a conflict the U.S. joined by launching bunker-busting airstrikes on underground Iranian uranium-enrichment sites.
Now the White House has renewed its push for a halt to the war in Gaza. In a Tuesday evening social media post, Trump said Israel had agreed to the 'necessary conditions" for a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, a goal likely to come up in his meeting with Netanyahu.
'I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE," Trump wrote on Truth Social, his own social-media platform.
Since the Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran, Trump has weighed in on Israel's domestic affairs, urging Israeli authorities to drop charges against Netanyahu that accuse him of corruption, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing. The calls represent rare interference by a U.S. leader in a foreign country's domestic judicial process.
'Bibi and I just went through HELL together," Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend, using Netanyahu's nickname. 'Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land. Anybody else would have suffered losses, embarrassment, and chaos!"
Trump has called the case against Netanyahu a political witch hunt and compared it to his own legal issues. Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records by a New York court last year and also found liable for sexual abuse in a civil case. Trump has denied wrongdoing and called both the cases against him disgraceful.
Trump's decision to add U.S. forces to the air campaign against Iran and then to champion Israel's leader reflects the president's affinity—in military and political affairs—for leaders he sees as winners.
Netanyahu's ability to persuade Trump to bomb Iran marks a high point in their at-times tumultuous relationship.
'Trump is a very primal, gut politician and to the extent that he identifies with you, you're better off," said Gil Troy, an Israeli-American scholar of American presidential history and Zionism. Besting Iran in the conflict also helped. 'The power of the victory absolutely created a momentum of its own," he said.
Trump also has appeared to warm in recent weeks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—whom he scolded in the Oval Office earlier this year—after spectacular Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian strategic air bases and a lack of progress in Russia's ground offensive.
On Tuesday, Trump said in response to a reporter's question that he was going to be 'very firm" with Netanyahu about ending the war in Gaza. 'He wants to end it too," he said of Netanyahu.
The lowest point in relations between Trump and Netanyahu arguably came in 2021. After Netanyahu called former President Joe Biden to congratulate him on his election win, Trump said of the Israeli premier: 'f—him." In an interview with Axios at the time, Trump said Netanyahu was disloyal.
Netanyahu never publicly addressed the matter. He also has kept his head down after other slights by the president, avoiding any confrontation and offering consistent and effusive praise of Trump in public.
'You have two people who are used to being by far the most dominant presence in any room," said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. 'I think Netanyahu has been socially intelligent by deferring to Trump all the time, but also cajoling and convincing him to do things he might otherwise not have done."
Netanyahu has portrayed his corruption trial as an effort on the part of Israel's 'deep state" to unseat him. Netanyahu is Israel's longest serving prime minister, having held office for 17 nonconsecutive years.
The allegations against Netanyahu, stemming from a 2019 indictment, broadly center on accusations he provided benefits to wealthy businessmen in exchange for favorable media coverage or expensive gifts such as cigars and Champagne. In December, he began testifying as frequently as three times a week in his trial, the first sitting Israeli prime minister to do so.
One of Netanyahu's main political selling points domestically has been his close relationship with Trump. He has worked to pump up the image of that friendship. In his 2019 election campaign, he put up billboards around Israel showing him shaking hands with Trump, with the words: 'Netanyahu, in a league of his own."
When Trump returned to office, some Israelis were jittery about how that congratulatory phone call to Biden would play into Trump's posture toward Israel.
For the opening months of Trump's second term, he appeared to be sidelining Israel. The president skipped Israel on the first trip to the Middle East, and he negotiated a deal with Yemen's Houthi rebels to halt a U.S. bombing campaign that didn't stop the group from lobbing missiles at Israel.
A low point between the two men came in April, when Trump announced at the White House, to a displeased looking Netanyahu, that the U.S. was going to begin direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Netanyahu appeared in April at his trial on corruption charges at a court in Tel Aviv.
Despite the awkward moment, Netanyahu didn't respond and played it well, said Oren. 'He didn't pull a Zelensky," he said, referring to the Ukrainian president's open dispute with Trump on Feb. 28 in the Oval Office. 'He could have taken him on. He rolls with it, which is smart."
In a June 12 phone call between Trump and Netanyahu, the president said Israel could proceed on its own with strikes against Iran, but that the U.S. wouldn't get involved, the Journal previously reported.
As Trump watched Israel's opening blows, his tune changed. He began expressing admiration for the strikes, hinting to reporters in calls that the U.S. had played a bigger role than was known.
But just a few days later, Trump angrily said that Iran and Israel 'don't know what the f—they're doing" when a shaky cease-fire seemed on the cusp of collapse.
Oren said those kinds of events are characteristic of the two men's relationship. 'It's ups and downs," he said. 'It's a roller coaster."
Write to Shayndi Raice at Shayndi.Raice@wsj.com
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