Trump Endorses Netanyahu Nine Days Before Israel Votes, Tying the Race to Iran
In a Truth Social letter "To the Great People of Israel," the President gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his "Complete and Total Endorsement." Netanyahu thanked him within minutes. His main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, says Israeli voters alone will decide.
The Overview
The facts, straight
BREAKING: President Trump posted the endorsement on Truth Social at 10:45 a.m. ET Sunday, Oct. 18. Israel votes Oct. 27.
President Trump on Sunday endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection, nine days before Israel's Oct. 27 parliamentary election. He did it in a letter posted on Truth Social, addressed "To the Great People of Israel."
"Bibi Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran," the President wrote. He said Iran has been "systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job."
The letter tied the endorsement directly to Iran: "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." It closed: "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!"
Netanyahu thanked him on X within minutes, first in Hebrew. The Jerusalem Post translated the post as: "Thank you, President Trump, for the tremendous support and the joint work. Together we will complete the mission!"
Post: Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) on X, Oct. 18, 2026 (Hebrew).
About two hours later he followed in English: "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."
Post: Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) on X, Oct. 18, 2026.
Why now. "I was always going to do that. I just didn't want to do it too soon," the President told Axios in a short phone interview Sunday. "It is important that Israel has a person they can count on." Asked whether he could work with another Israeli leader, he said: "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Who wants to take the chance?" Axios called it the first time a U.S. president has explicitly and publicly endorsed a candidate in an Israeli election.
The endorsement came three days after a Thursday interview with Newsmax, in which the President did not commit to getting involved. Asked whether he planned to get involved in the election, he said, "Well, they'd like me to be." Asked whether he trusted Netanyahu, he said, "I don't trust anybody, honestly," adding, "In the world of politics, I don't trust anybody." In the same interview he said, "Look, I've had a very good relationship with him. We've had good success together."
Also on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee rejected a report, first published by Israel Hayom, that Washington was pushing a unity government of Netanyahu's Likud and Eisenkot's party. "This is absolutely NOT true. Not in the least. The US government is NOT trying to manipulate Israel's election or telling @IsraeliPM what to do. Period. Full stop," he wrote.
The race. Israel's prime minister is chosen through coalition-building in the 120-seat Knesset, not by direct vote, and a government needs 61 seats. "Polls have suggested no candidate has a clear path to power," Reuters reported. Axios said most polls show Netanyahu's coalition short of 61.
Netanyahu's doctrine. Later Sunday, Netanyahu presented an updated national security doctrine at a pre-election briefing. It puts prevention and offense ahead of containment and calls for "building maximum independence in munitions," Israel National News reported. He also urged new alliances beyond Washington. "In two years, a president — male or female — could come to power in Washington who is very hostile to Israel. We must do everything in our power during these two years and work to establish many alliances in our region and beyond," he said, naming India and Latin America as prospective partners, the Times of Israel reported.
What the Left Says
The progressive and Democratic case
Israel's opposition says the choice belongs to Israeli voters. "I have great appreciation for the US president," Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main challenger, said at a Tel Aviv University event, the Times of Israel reported. But "Israel is a democracy," he said, and "Israel's citizens are the only ones who will decide who the prime minister will be." Asked on Channel 12 whether he had tried to head off the endorsement, he said: "There were a number of meetings I don't want to elaborate on. I requested that there be no intervention in Israel's internal election. But I'll deal with it."
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid made the reciprocity argument a day before the letter. "We are asking him not to interfere in Israel's elections. We are a democracy," he told Channel 12, per the Times of Israel. "I don't think an Israeli prime minister should interfere in elections in the United States, and I don't think an American president should interfere in Israeli elections."
Where Reality Likely Sits
Radio Purple's analysis
Both things can be true. A U.S. president openly taking a side in an ally's election is new, as Axios noted, and Israeli voters may reward it or resent it. It is also a public, on-the-record argument, made in the President's own words, about who he thinks can finish a war both countries are fighting.
There is real common ground. Eisenkot opened his response by praising the President. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "Ultimately, in international politics, every leader works with the leader who is elected," according to The Media Line. And even as he criticized Netanyahu, Lapid said, "I'm not saying we shouldn't attack Iran." Across Israel's main parties and in Washington, nobody is arguing that Iran should get a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu's own doctrine makes the same point from the other side: an alliance that has to outlast any one president, or any one prime minister. Israel decides on Oct. 27. Should an American president weigh in on an ally's election when the stakes include a shared war?
What the Right Says
The conservative and Republican case
Supporters see a President standing by a wartime ally. Reuters noted that the President credits Netanyahu with joining the United States in launching strikes on Iran in February, in a conflict now in its seventh month. The letter makes the case that continuity matters: Netanyahu has been "Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition," the President wrote, and is "the kind of Partner that the United States of America is demanding of Israel, a Country for which it has done so much."
The President also framed it as a question of burden-sharing. If Israel picks a different leader, he wrote, "America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so." Netanyahu's English reply put the shared goal plainly: "Together we will never let Iran's regime get nuclear weapons."
There is also a difference between an open endorsement and steering behind the scenes. Huckabee's denial was aimed at the second: a report that Washington was quietly steering coalition talks. The endorsement is the opposite of quiet. It is a public statement of preference that Israeli voters can weigh, accept or reject.
Sources & Citations
- Donald J. Trump, Truth Social, “To the Great People of Israel (Truth Social post)”, October 18, 2026.
- X, “Benjamin Netanyahu post on X (Hebrew)”, October 18, 2026.
- X, “Benjamin Netanyahu post on X (English)”, October 18, 2026.
- X, “Ambassador Mike Huckabee post on X”, October 15, 2026.
- Axios (Barak Ravid), “Trump tells Axios why he endorsed Netanyahu's reelection”, October 18, 2026.
- NBC News, “Trump endorses Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of pivotal Israeli election (Reuters)”, October 18, 2026.
- Newsmax, “Trump to Newsmax on Netanyahu: 'I Don't Trust Anybody'”, October 15, 2026.
- The Jerusalem Post, “Donald Trump endorses Benjamin Netanyahu days before Israeli election, praises action on Iran”, October 18, 2026.
- The Times of Israel, “Eisenkot: Israeli voters, not Trump, will choose next PM, I tried to stop endorsement”, October 18, 2026.
- The Times of Israel, “Lapid says he doesn't trust Netanyahu not to launch Iran strike that could disrupt elections”, October 17, 2026.
- The Media Line, “Trump Endorses Netanyahu as Israeli Rivals Reject Foreign Intervention”, October 18, 2026.
- The Times of Israel, “In pre-election briefing, PM vows to topple Iranian regime, downplays settler violence”, October 18, 2026.
- Israel National News, “Netanyahu unveils new security doctrine: From defense to offense”, October 18, 2026.
Positions above are attributed to the public statements and published reporting cited here. Quotations are taken from these sources; Radio Purple does not publish unattributed or invented quotes. See an error? Request a correction.