Trump’s effusive praise for PM part of strategy to keep disagreements private — sources

US President Donald Trump is intent on avoiding a public spat with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even when there are gaps between the pair on key policies regarding the Middle East, a US official and a Republican source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Trump currently believes that public disagreements with Netanyahu will serve neither his political nor strategic interests, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where he aims to announce a transition to phase two of his peace plan within weeks, the two sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“While some of us working for the president have gotten frustrated with Bibi and feel he has been dragging his feet on phase two of the Gaza deal, the president has intentionally been shielded from those conversations,” the US official said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

After phase one of the plan commenced in October with a fraught ceasefire and hostage deal, the US has sought to move to the next stage, which is supposed to see the establishment of governing and security mechanisms responsible for the postwar management of Gaza in place of Hamas.

That transition has been marred by Hamas’s failure to return all of the slain hostages and, most critically, the terror group’s refusal to decommission its weapons.

But the US official said Israeli policies have also complicated the process, pointing to what Washington has sometimes felt have been unnecessary IDF strikes in Gaza; Israeli pushback on Turkish involvement in the Strip, which the administration believes is critical to keep Hamas in check; and Jerusalem’s refusal to allow the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza to reopen in both directions.

Trump and his top aides raised the latter issue during their Monday meetings with Netanyahu in West Palm Beach and believe that the private appeals will lead to an Israeli announcement in the coming days of Rafah’s full opening, the US official said. Israel has to date pushed back on allowing the entry of civilians into Gaza before the body of the final hostage, Israel Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is returned.

While Trump told reporters on Monday that he is committed to securing Gvili’s release, he stopped short of conditioning a transition to phase two on the return of his remains.

The US president believes that presenting a united front with Netanyahu will make the prime minister more amenable to certain US requests, including ones that might upset his far-right coalition partners or expose him to criticism from rivals in an election year, according to the US official.

That strategy was apparently on full display at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump heaped praise on Netanyahu and insisted that the pair are aligned on just about everything.

“He’s a wartime prime minister. He’s a hero,” Trump told reporters as he welcomed Netanyahu to the resort and again urged President Isaac Herzog to pardon the premier in his ongoing corruption trial.

“He’s taken Israel through a very dangerous period of trauma. Israel, with other people, might not exist right now,” the president said of the Israeli leader at the helm during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught that started the Gaza war.

Trump also seemed to grant Netanyahu freedom of action on an issue that the prime minister cares about most, declaring that he would back — and might again even join — Israeli strikes on Iran if the Islamic Republic tries to revive its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

During a post-meeting press conference, Trump told reporters, “There’s very little difference in what we’re looking at and… where we want to go.”

He did not deny that there are some differences of opinion regarding the West Bank, but he declined to specify what the gaps are and insisted that Netanyahu would ultimately “do the right thing.”

During the meeting itself, Trump raised concern about unchecked settler violence, settlement expansion and Israeli policies that risk collapsing the Palestinian Authority, the US official said, while clarifying that the conversation was cordial and that the premier appeared receptive to Washington’s concerns.

The strategy of avoiding public disputes with Netanyahu was also attempted by former US president Joe Biden, particularly during the early days of the Gaza war, when the strategy was characterized as a “bear hug” approach.

But the US official said that it was routinely violated by Biden and his aides, who bitterly criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and avoided the kind of embrace of Netanyahu that Trump has adopted.

Moreover, “Bibi sought friction with Biden. With President Trump, he avoids it,” the US official said.

In addition to believing that public spats with Netanyahu will not advance his Mideast agenda, Trump also does not want to alienate some of his most loyal supporters, said the Republican source familiar with the matter.

While some parts of his MAGA base may applaud a break with Netanyahu amid rising anti-Israel — and sometimes antisemitic — sentiment on the right, other Republicans are attracted to Trump specifically because of his support for the Jewish state.

Trump has sought to keep both groups in his camp, but has made a point of prioritizing the pro-Israel side, the source said, noting the president has sought to avoid upsetting GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson and Fox News commentator Mark Levin, both longtime supporters of Netanyahu.

He called both of them to the stage during the White House Hanukkah party earlier this month, where he lamented the decline of the “Jewish lobby” and support of Israel in Congress, while pledging not to follow that trend.