Trump offers ‘warrior’ Netanyahu ‘complete and total endorsement’ for reelection

US President Donald Trump endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid for reelection on Sunday, nine days before Israel’s October 27 national vote, saying any other candidate would be the “wrong” leader and leave the US to fight Iran alone.

“BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using the premier’s nickname.

Trump’s endorsement came after he said Thursday that he had not “even thought about” backing a candidate in the Israeli election, amid his disagreements with Netanyahu in recent months over US efforts to end the war in Iran.

Netanyahu and his allies paraded the endorsement, while the premier’s opponents said they respected Trump, but that Israelis would choose their leaders.

The mercurial US leader long ago abandoned the norm of US presidents not intervening in the elections of allied countries, and has on numerous occasions endorsed candidates in various nations.

In a post addressed to “the Great People of Israel” on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” of Netanyahu and called him “a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combating the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

TRUMP: Announces endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu for re-election as Israel's prime minister, says America would have to confront Iran alone under any other Israeli leader pic.twitter.com/7sgZ3FFuLp

— Trump Truths (@trumptruthsbot) October 18, 2026

Israel and the US jointly launched the war on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Trump’s Republicans have hemorrhaged support ahead of next month’s US midterm elections, as gas prices have soared due to the war.

In his post, Trump justified the war, saying Iran was bound to make good on its vow to “destroy the Little Satan and the Big Satan” — Israel and the US, respectively — but has instead been “systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job.”

“If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so,” Trump said. “Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself.

“I have watched Bibi under the most trying of times. Normal men or women in such situations would have wilted under the pressure — But Bibi did not wilt, he actually got stronger, and maintains that same Strength today,” said Trump. “This is the kind of Partner that the United States of America is demanding of Israel, a Country for which it has done so much.”

Roughly seven minutes after Trump’s endorsement, Netanyahu published a video compilation of instances where the US president praised him, with the caption: “Thank you, President Trump, for the tremendous support and the joint work. Together we’ll finish the task!”

תודה לך הנשיא טראמפ על התמיכה האדירה והעבודה המשותפת.

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יחד נשלים את המשימה! pic.twitter.com/0D4h9hkL5o

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 18, 2026

In a separate video statement, Netanyahu stressed that Trump would, “in the coming two years, maybe earlier,” finish “eliminating the Iranian threat,” but only with him and not with any other candidate.

“This is the greatest consideration,” Netanyahu said. “Ensuring the eternity of Israel is what’s on the table in these elections.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz, who is sixth on the candidate slate of Netanyahu’s Likud, hailed Trump’s endorsement as a “most important strategic message about Israel’s security in the future.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Otzma Yehudit party, both thanked Trump and presented his message as an endorsement of Netanyahu’s entire right-wing bloc, including their own parties.

Smotrich wrote on X that Israeli voters “would do well to listen to the president of the world’s largest superpower, simply because he’s right. The national bloc must continue leading Israel.”

Ben Gvir also hailed the endorsement at a press conference in which he claimed at the same time that Netanyahu had pledged to European officials that Otzma Yehudit would not be in the next government. The far-right minister accused the prime minister of seeking a government with the lead opposition candidate, ex-IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot.

“There’s only one person here who can be prime minister — that’s Benjamin Netanyahu. The question is who will be alongside him,” Ben Gvir said, adding that Trump’s endorsement gave Netanyahu legitimacy to form a full-on right-wing government.

Responding to the endorsement, Eisenkot said at an event for Tel Aviv University students that he has “great appreciation for the US president,” but that “Israel is a democracy” and its citizens “are the only ones who will decide who the prime minister will be.”

Later, asked in a Channel 12 interview if he had tried to prevent the endorsement, the Yashar party chief said: “There were a number of meetings I don’t want to elaborate on. I requested that there be no intervention in Israel’s internal election. But I’ll handle it.”

Right-wing former prime minister Naftali Bennett, whose B’Yachad party is projected in polls to become the third-largest party in the Knesset, after Yashar and Likud, also told Tel Aviv University students that the Israeli public would decide who leads the country.

“I know I can get along very well with President Trump,” Bennett said. “Ultimately, in international politics, every leader works with the leader who is elected.”

With nine days to go until the pivotal vote, and with Trump having avoided endorsing anyone in the race until now, some analysts in Israel had posited that his belief in Netanyahu had wavered, and that he would not be declaring for anyone.

Many media reports had portrayed Trump as frustrated with Netanyahu for allegedly making lofty promises of a quick victory over Iran at the start of the year, which did not eventually pan out.

Tensions were reported to rise when Washington decided to halt the campaign against Tehran and seek an accord, with Israel wary of the sides reaching a deal that would harm its security.

In June, as Israel’s continued strikes in Lebanon frustrated Iran peace talks and drew expletive-laden criticism of Netanyahu from Trump, the US president said he would “most likely” endorse the premier’s reelection bid but would first have to see who else was running.

Despite their disagreements, Trump and Netanyahu have continued to insist they have a good working relationship.