{"id":585614,"date":"2026-08-15T15:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/585614\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T15:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:42:21","slug":"trump-said-to-call-netanyahu-his-own-worst-enemy-as-pm-vies-for-election-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/585614\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump said to call Netanyahu ‘his own worst enemy’ as PM vies for election endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as \u201chis own worst enemy\u201d recently, according to sources close to the president, in a blow to Netanyahu\u2019s hopes that the White House will endorse him ahead of his October 27 reelection bid.<\/p>\n

Far from an endorsement, however, the remark\u00a0reported by Axios<\/a> on Friday appeared to be the latest crack in the relationship between the two strongmen, despite their insistence that they are good friends, and Netanyahu\u2019s visit to Washington last month.<\/p>\n

During that visit, Axios reported that Tump questioned Netanyahu about his election prospects, asking how he was faring in opinion polls.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu hesitated, an official familiar with the matter told the news outlet, before one of his aides answered for him, saying: \u201cMr. President, he is winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most polls, including those conducted by The Times of Israel\u2019s sister site Zman Yisrael, have Netanyahu\u2019s Likud neck-and-neck with or, more recently, falling behind<\/a> his main challenger, Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot.<\/p>\n

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They also show Netanyahu\u2019s coalition bloc falling to around 50 seats in the 120-member Knesset, with Eisenkot appearing better positioned to form a government.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tYashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot visits Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, as part of his election campaign, August 5, 2026. (Tsafrir Abayov\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Delving into why Trump hasn\u2019t endorsed Netanyahu ahead of the upcoming election, Axios confirmed that the Israeli premier\u2019s poor performance in the polls is, in part, what has led the president to so far refrain from doing so.<\/p>\n

Citing two senior officials, the outlet said that although the US president likes the Israeli prime minister personally, he has also been frustrated with some of his policies and decisions as of late, particularly pertaining to Iran, Lebanon and Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cBibi is his own worst enemy,\u201d Trump said about Netanyahu, according to two people who have spoken to the president recently.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s apparent reluctance to put his weight behind Netanyahu\u2019s reelection bid, the premier\u2019s rivals Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have still expressed concern that he will eventually do so, according to two of the opposition leaders\u2019 aides who spoke to Axios.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the opposition figures have funneled back-channel messages to Trump\u2019s circle urging him to remain neutral, the aides said.<\/p>\n

Trump has made a habit of endorsing his allies around the world in their respective leadership bids, and most recently endorsed Colombia\u2019s Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Previous US leaders have avoided endorsing specific Israeli candidates.<\/p>\n

In June, Trump acknowledged that he would \u201cmost likely\u201d endorse Netanyahu, but said he would have to see who he was running against first.<\/p>\n

The two leaders have butted heads several times in recent months, with Netanyahu reportedly derided by Trump as \u201cfucking crazy\u201d and having \u201cno fucking judgement,\u201d first over Washington\u2019s push for diplomacy with Iran that left Israel out in the cold, and more recently over Israeli military action in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and US President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office on July 28, 2026. (GPO)<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Netanyahu announced in a weekly cabinet meeting that Israel had rejected the Board of Peace roadmap for the disarmament of Gaza, and pushed back against claims that he had accepted Trump\u2019s vision for the Strip.<\/p>\n

Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his peace plan for the Strip, in the form of a 15-point proposal for the IDF to withdraw and Hamas to hand over its weapons.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu told the cabinet that the IDF would not withdraw without a \u201cgenuine disarmament\u201d process.<\/p>\n

He also insisted that he knew how to stand up to Trump, both about Gaza and Iran, saying that Israel knows \u201chow to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his claim, IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip told Channel 12 on Monday that the rules of engagement have changed dramatically since the disarmament roadmap was publicized, suggesting that there are quiet agreements with the board to drastically rein in operations.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as \u201chis own worst enemy\u201d recently, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[147752,49,54,85,46,53,43],"class_list":["post-585614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-israeli-elections","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-us-relations","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}