Trump: I’m likely to endorse Netanyahu in election, but I have to see who else is running

US President Donald Trump says he will “most likely” endorse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the fall Israeli elections, but he wants to see who else is running against him first.

“I’ll have to look at who’s running, but I like Bibi very much. I would be most likely to endorse him,” Trump tells the Kan public broadcaster in a phone interview.

Netanyahu’s most formidable opponents at the moment appear to be former IDF chief of staff and Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot and former prime minister and Together party chief Naftali Bennett.

“He’s doing a very good job, he’s got to be a little bit more rational,” Trump adds, apparently referring to Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the US feels has been indiscriminate.

Trump has issued a series of harsh criticisms of Netanyahu in recent days and weeks, calling him “fucking crazy” and saying he has “no fucking judgment,” among other things, but has also praised their relationship, which he’s called “very good” and “unbelievable.”

Making the case for the memorandum of understanding that he signed this week with Iran, Trump says, “The Israeli people should support the deal because we took the nuclear weapon threat away against Israel. He repeats a sentiment he expressed, earlier in the week, saying, “If it wasn’t for Donald Trump, Israel wouldn’t exist right now. They would have been blown off the planet.”

As for Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium that the MOU says will be the subject of subsequent talks, Trump says the issue is “very unimportant, frankly.”

“It’s buried under a mountain that nobody can get to except us, it’s very safely buried under a mountain and at the right time we will get it. We’ll take it at the right time,” Trump claims.