Trump Endorses Netanyahu as Best U.S. Partner in Tight Israeli Election

 

Trump Endorses Netanyahu as Best U.S. Partner in Tight Israeli Election

 

The president praised the embattled prime minister for his endurance, saying any other candidate would be the “wrong Leader.”

 

“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition,” President Trump wrote of the Israeli prime minister on Sunday.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

By Tyler Pager and Aaron Boxerman

Oct. 18, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/us/politics/trump-endorses-netanyahu-election-israel.html

 

President Trump endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday, giving the embattled Israeli leader a boost nine days before a hard-fought parliamentary election.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump wrote a message to the “Great People of Israel” contending that anyone other than Mr. Netanyahu would be the “wrong Leader.”

“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself,” he wrote. “Despite all of that, he has endured and, in fact, he has thrived!”

Relations between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu have become increasingly tense, particularly over the nations’ joint war against Iran. But in his endorsement Mr. Trump called Mr. Netanyahu a “Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, thanked the president for his “amazing support and work together.”

“Together, we’ll finish the job,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote on social media.

The endorsement is in keeping with Mr. Trump’s penchant for wading into foreign elections to bolster his allies, but it is a sharp break from longstanding American foreign policy norms. American presidents have generally stayed away from explicitly endorsing foreign leaders in elections.

Israelis are set to head to the polls on Oct. 27 in an election that is widely seen as a referendum on Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership. Many in Israel fault Mr. Netanyahu for failing to prevent Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and steering Israel to near-unprecedented diplomatic isolation during the subsequent war in Gaza. Nonetheless, Mr. Netanyahu and his allies are neck and neck with their opponents in polling.

While the tenor of the relationship between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump has varied wildly over the years, Mr. Netanyahu often highlighted his influence over the U.S. president in his pitch to voters. Ahead of a 2019 election, Mr. Netanyahu featured pictures of himself shaking hands with Mr. Trump in massive billboards across the country.

The two leaders worked closely ahead of the decision to launch a joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, including a February visit by Mr. Netanyahu to the White House. During that visit, Mr. Netanyahu made a presentation to Mr. Trump and his top officials in the Situation Room, arguing that a joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign could lead to regime change in Iran.

 

Some of the president’s top advisers told Mr. Trump that Mr. Netanyahu’s analysis was preposterous, but the president still went through with the campaign.

The relationship between the two leaders soured considerably as the war with Iran stretched into a grueling slog that ensnarled the global economy. Mr. Trump appeared to have increasingly little patience for the conflict, moving to secure cease-fires with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon over Israeli objections. The president later admitted that he had privately called Mr. Netanyahu “crazy” over Israeli actions in Lebanon.

In his endorsement, though, Mr. Trump had only praise for the Israeli leader.

“I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure — But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today.”

Mr. Trump’s endorsement will likely carry some credence for Israelis, though perhaps not as much as it once did. Many Israelis hail Mr. Trump for securing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza last year when his team helped broker a fragile cease-fire with Hamas. But others now view him as an unpredictable leader who dropped the ball in the middle of the war with Iran, which Israel had hoped to continue prosecuting.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has upended American politics since the Oct. 7 attacks, with a growing share of voters disapproving of the Israeli government’s management of the war. Last year, a poll from The New York Times and Siena University found slightly more voters siding with Palestinians over Israelis for the first time since The Times began asking voters about their sympathies in 1998.

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.

Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.