Netanyahu says he’ll fly to DC for Tuesday meet with Trump, Graham memorial service; Trump confirms visit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the White House, the premier’s office announced Friday, in what will be the leaders’ first sit-down since the outbreak of the Iran war on February 28.

Later on Friday, Trump confirmed the impending visit.

Netanyahu will fly to Washington on Monday and depart on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

In addition to meeting Trump, Netanyahu’s Tuesday schedule will include attending a memorial service for the late pro-Israel Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

Opposition chairman Yair Lapid will also fly out to participate in the memorial service for Graham, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

Trump’s confirmation of Netanyahu’s DC visit came in his speech at the White House ​Correspondents’ Association Dinner, while he was ​falsely casting US Senator Chuck Schumer as ⁠Palestinian. “I am going to send him (Schumer) a ​beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow, so he can ​greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week,” Trump said.

“He turned Palestinian,” Trump said of Schumer, ​who is Jewish, while also joking that ​sharia law was Schumer’s “new founding.” US Muslim and Jewish advocacy ‌groups ⁠have previously criticized Trump for calling Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, a Palestinian, with the rights groups saying Trump uses the term disrespectfully as ​a slur and ​as an ⁠insult.

The idea for a Netanyahu visit was first raised during a call between the two leaders on July 3.

After Graham died suddenly on July 11, Netanyahu announced that he would be flying to the US for his funeral.

He wanted to meet with Trump while in town, but the White House reportedly held off on scheduling a meeting, as Netanyahu’s popularity among both US political parties continued to nosedive.

There were also reportedly concerns among Trump’s aides that if the US decided to launch a major attack after the president met with Netanyahu, Washington would again be accused of being dragged into the conflict by Israel.

The pair last met on February 11 in the White House, where Netanyahu made a high-stakes Situation Room pitch for the US to join Israel in another war against Iran, which included a series of predictions that didn’t pan out.

Netanyahu reportedly told Trump that Iran’s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in a few weeks; that Tehran would be so weakened by US-Israeli attacks that it would be unable to block traffic through the Strait of Hormuz; that it would likely be unable to strike US assets in neighboring countries; and that the regime was ripe for collapse, thanks to help from Kurdish fighters capable of invading the country from Iraq.

Less than three weeks later, the US and Israel launched a joint campaign against Iran.

Trump is now considering another major attack after the memorandum of understanding he signed last month to end the war has fallen apart due to disputes over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump has been threatening to blow up Iranian energy sites, but has held off to date amid concerns that continued aerial attacks will be just as ineffective at shifting Iran’s position as previous strikes.

While Netanyahu aimed to meet Trump earlier this week, his office announced that his trip was put on hold due to the purported delay of Graham’s funeral to next week.

If Netanyahu ends up making the trip to Washington next week, it would suggest that a major US escalation against Iran is not in store, despite Trump’s repeated threats against Tehran.

Israel and the US carried out a multi-faceted misinformation campaign ahead of the June 2025 Israeli attack on Iran to convince Tehran that a strike on its nuclear facilities was not imminent. An element of the ruse was a video statement from Netanyahu announcing that there had been “significant progress” in hostage talks with Hamas, though foreign officials couldn’t figure out what progress Israel was speaking about.

Israel wanted Tehran to think it was still debating the matter of a potential strike with the White House. It thus announced that then-strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and Mossad Chief David Barnea would take off for talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff ahead of the next round of talks between Tehran and Washington, claiming the trip was meant to “clarify Israel’s position.”

In addition, Netanyahu’s office put out a statement stressing that, despite some media reports to the contrary amid the rising regional tensions, he would not be canceling his weekend vacation in the north. And preparations for the wedding of Netanyahu’s son Avner went ahead, even though it was cancelled.

Netanyahu has already met with Trump seven times since the president returned to office — more than any other world leader.

In announcing the eighth meeting, the premier’s office said journalists from Israel would not be allowed to travel with Netanyahu on the taxpayer-funded Wing of Zion plane. No explanation was given, though this is not the first time that the prime minister’s office has forced reporters to find their own way to the US, and his relationship with the press has long been cold.

In recent weeks, US media outlets have been reporting on mounting tensions between the US and Israel, amid Israel’s opposition to the MOU signed in mid-June.

Netanyahu’s office has argued that the reports have been exaggerated and that his close relationship with Trump has endured.

Trump publicly expressed frustration with Netanyahu last month over what the president said was Israel’s indiscriminate strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the conflict there risked upending the US-Iran MOU.

US Vice President JD Vance has been far more biting in his criticism, lashing out at far-right Israeli ministers who criticized the deal he helped negotiate, in addition to accusing Jerusalem of running an online misinformation campaign against the MOU.

The rhetoric against Israel has toned down in recent days, though, with Trump repeatedly insisting that his relationship with Netanyahu remains strong.