US President Donald Trump refused to endorse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection campaign during a Thursday interview with Newsmax, despite claiming that “they” would like him involved in the upcoming Knesset elections.
“They’d like me to be,” he said, adding, “I don’t trust anybody, honestly. I don’t trust anybody. In the world of politics, I don’t trust anybody.”
Trump also discussed his popularity among Israelis, claiming that “The people of Israel, they say if I ran for prime minister, I’d get 99% of them.”
Israel and the United States had had a very successful military partnership, Trump said, adding that he and Netanyahu had also had “a very good relationship.”
This is not the first time that Trump has declined to explicitly endorse Netanyahu in his reelection campaign.
When asked by reporters on Tuesday whether he would endorse a candidate, Trump said that “We haven’t even thought about it,” and that “I may be. I may be doing something.”
Earlier this month, during an interview with Time Magazine, Trump also hedged on his support for Netanyahu, saying that while “people have written off Bibi many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times,” he was “not involved in politics anymore.”
During that interview, Trump also said that he doesn’t “hear bad things” about Gadi Eisenkot, one of Netanyahu’s chief competitors in the upcoming election.
According to the poll, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar led with 22 seats, while Netanyahu’s Likud fell to a low of 18.
Jerusalem Post Staff and Idan Kweller contributed to this report.