Netanyahu to meet Trump in DC on Monday, will discuss tariffs, hostages, Iran, Turkey, ICC
White House visit will make PM first foreign leader to negotiate in person with Trump on new trade policy; judges cancel PM’s Monday trial hearing, but not Wednesday’s
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to visit the White House on Monday to discuss sweeping recently announced tariffs with US President Donald Trump, Israeli officials and a White House official said on Saturday.
Netanyahu on Saturday night confirmed the visit, and his office said the two would also discuss “efforts to reach a hostage deal, Israel-Turkey relations, the Iranian threat, and confronting the International Criminal Court.”
It will be Netanyahu’s fourth trip to Washington since the war in Gaza began and his second since Trump took office in January. The visit will also make Netanyahu the first foreign leader to negotiate in person with Trump over the US president’s sweeping new tariff policy, which included a 17% tariff on Israeli goods.
“The prime minister appreciates the personal and warm relationship with President Trump,” said the statement from the premier’s office, “and thanks him for inviting him to be the first leader to meet with him after the imposition of global tariffs, just as he was also the first leader to meet with him after entering the White House.”
Netanyahu will likely fly back to Israel from Washington on Tuesday morning.
The surprise invite by Trump came in a phone call on Thursday with Netanyahu, who is presently on a visit to Hungary, when the Israeli leader raised the tariff issue, according to the Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The judges in Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial agreed to cancel Monday’s hearing so that he could fly to the US, but refused his lawyer’s request to cancel Wednesday’s hearing.
A report on Saturday night said Israel fears that the US is “losing interest” in the hostage issue. Channel 12 said Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will be in Washington for the Netanyahu visit, and the Israeli hope is that negotiations can be revived. Backed by Witkoff, Israel has sought to secure an extended first phase of the deal signed in January under which more living hostages would be released, rather than entering the second phase of the deal, under which Israel would be obligated to end the war.
In Budapest on Friday, a “senior official” on Netanyahu’s visit said it would be impossible to restart the war once Israel committed to ending it since Hamas would seek irrevocable guarantees, including a UN Security Council resolution.
As regards Iran, the report said Israel is anxious to ensure that, with Trump declaring a readiness to negotiate a new deal designed to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, Israel’s essential interests would be taken into account. If there is no new negotiation, and with the US sending forces to the region, then Israel needs to coordinate with the US on a potential attack, the report said.
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Friday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with Netanyahu “to underscore US support for Israel.” They discussed “the situation in Gaza and the Administration’s resolve to free the hostages in Gaza and recently announced tariffs,” Bruce said.
Trump had also spoken with representatives from Israel, India and Vietnam to negotiate trade deals that could alleviate the proposed tariffs on those countries before the levies take effect next week, CNN reported Friday, citing a senior adviser.
Netanyahu’s office did not comment on the call with Rubio or reported trade talks.
Trump had told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that Netanyahu “may very well be coming next week.”
The US president also said he wants to “solve the Gaza problem” and hold direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program — even though Netanyahu thinks a new US-Iran nuclear deal is extremely unlikely and wants to discuss a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to a senior Israeli official cited by Axios.
According to the news site, Trump’s comment that Netanyahu could visit “next week” surprised Netanyahu and his office, as well as members of the US president’s own staff.
Trump had spoken hours earlier with Netanyahu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, while Netanyahu was visiting Budapest. According to Netanyahu’s office, the conversation focused on Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court and “the next steps that can be taken on this topic,” following the arrest warrants issued by the ICC in November against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
During the call, Axios reported, Netanyahu brought up the new US tariffs, and Trump suggested the premier come to the White House to discuss them.
A senior Israeli official had told reporters in Budapest on Friday that Netanyahu discussed the tariffs with Trump. “I believe we will enter a dialogue with them, said the official. “In the end, most of it is solvable.”
Trump’s 17% tariff on unspecified Israeli goods caught Jerusalem off guard. Earlier in the week, in a bid to forestall such a harsh penalty by Israel’s single largest trade partner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had scrapped all remaining tariffs on American imports.
Netanyahu’s previous trip — the first by a foreign leader since Trump’s inauguration — came some two weeks after Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The deal was reached on January 19 — the day before Trump’s inauguration — some 15 months after the Gaza war was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The deal’s 42-day first phase expired on March 2 amid Netanyahu’s refusal to proceed to the second phase, which would have required a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war in exchange for Hamas’s release of all remaining living hostages, with Israel freeing large numbers of Palestinian terrorists and security prisoners. There are 59 hostages still held in Gaza, 35 of whom have been confirmed by Israel to be dead. Israel resumed hostilities in the Strip on March 18.
Netanyahu has insisted the war end only once Hamas’s governing and military capabilities had been demolished. Hamas, meanwhile, has rejected a series of US-backed offers to extend the first phase while continuing to gradually free hostages.
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.