Trump pledges to visit Israel, Gaza and Saudi Arabia

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

US President Donald Trump (R) listens to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak during a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on February 4, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)
US President Donald Trump (R) listens to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak during a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on February 4, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump says he will visit Israel, Gaza and Saudi Arabia.

He notes that there’s been a lot of “bad leadership in the Middle East” that allowed the last year of tumult to unfold. He doesn’t specify who he is referring to.

In prepared remarks at the beginning of his press conference alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump blasts the policy of his predecessor Joe Biden, while boasting of the “victories” the US and Israel accomplished together during his first term.

He notes that he “ended the last administration’s de facto arms embargo” against Israel.

The Biden administration has repeatedly denied this accusation, saying it only withheld one shipment of 2,000-lb bombs.

Trump pledges to further bolster the US-Israeli partnership and expand the Abraham Accords.

He says he and Netanyahu during their meeting earlier today discussed their joint effort to “ensure Hamas is eliminated.”

Trump insists his plan for Gaza is for the betterment of “everybody in the Middle East.”

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