President Donald Trump endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for re-election Sunday and said the United States would have to take on Iran by itself if Israel picks anyone else.
Trump made the endorsement in a Truth Social post addressed “To the Great People of Israel” at about 9:45 a.m. Central time. Israelis vote Oct. 27 for a new Knesset, the country’s parliament, Fox News and the New York Post reported.
What Trump wrote
Trump called Netanyahu “a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
- On Iran: Trump wrote that Iran has been “systematically destroyed, both Militarily and Financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job.”
- On the U.S. role: “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,” he wrote.
- The endorsement: Trump asked that the post “serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel.”
Netanyahu replies
Netanyahu thanked Trump on X within minutes in Hebrew, then in English shortly before noon Central time. “Israel has never had a greater friend in the White House,” he wrote. “Together we will never let Iran’s regime get nuclear weapons.”
How Israel’s election works
Israelis vote for party lists, not for a prime minister directly. Seats in the 120-member Knesset are split among parties that clear 3.25% of the vote. A prime minister needs a coalition of at least 61 members, Fox News reported.
Netanyahu’s Likud party trails former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party in four major Israeli polls, the New York Post reported. Neither party is expected to win a majority on its own, so smaller parties could decide who forms the next government.
The endorsement comes as the U.S. and Israel keep up pressure on Tehran. iSEARK.com has covered the conflict’s effect on oil, including what the U.S. blockade has cost Iran in oil sales.
Sources: Donald J. Trump on Truth Social, Oct. 18, 2026; Benjamin Netanyahu on X, Oct. 18, 2026; Fox News; New York Post; Washington Examiner.
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