With his resounding support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump has become the first American president to officially and publicly endorse a candidate in an election in Israel.
In the past there were presidents who intervened in electoral campaigns with more or less clear but not public gestures, such as Bill Clinton in favor of Simón Peres in 1996 or Trump in favor of Netanyahu in 2019 and 2020, but never had the tenant of the White House asked for the vote including a notice related to Iran.
After months of many questions, speculation and pressure for and against whether or not he should give his opinion regarding the elections on October 27, Trump has given his response in a message addressed "to the Great People of Israel."
"Bibi Netanyahu has been a great warrior Prime Minister and an even more important ally in the search for peace, fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran with his slogan for 51 years: 'Death to Israel, death to the United States! We will destroy the little Satan and the great Satan!'"
His message on the social network Truth Social, in which he says that Netanyahu was "strong, brave and brilliant," ends like this: "Let this letter serve as a sign of my total and complete support for Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming race for re-election as Prime Minister of Israel. BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER DISAPPOINT YOU! (author's capital letters). Thank you for your attention on this matter."
"Trump effect"
It is difficult to know if the "Trump Effect" will have consequences at the polls, taking into account that he no longer enjoys the popularity of last year when he enabled the return of the hostages still in captivity in the Gaza Strip within the framework of the truce agreement imposed on Netanyahu and Hamas or when he participated with Israel in the two offensives against Iran (June 2025 and especially from February 2026). The agreement reached with Iran and seen then as "capitulation" - which soon collapsed - the limitations in the offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and its alliance with the emir of Qatar and the president of Turkey, allies of Hamas, eroded its great popularity in Israel built in the previous mandate with decisions such as the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem or the Abraham Accords.
What may perhaps influence is the most striking part of Trump's message in which he links what may happen with the Iranian regime to the identity of the Israeli prime minister. After warning Tehran that if it does not "quickly change course, we will soon finish the job," he warns the Israeli voter: "If Israel has the wrong leader—that is, anyone other than Bibi—the United States will have to handle this task on its own, something I have no desire to do."
With several messages on the X platform, Netanyahu reacted immediately to public support for which he made intense efforts to achieve. "President Trump, my friend Donald: Thank you for your extraordinary support. Israel has never had a greater friend in the White House. Together we will never allow the Iranian regime to obtain nuclear weapons. Thank you for your clarity, courage and unwavering support," he wrote. And he added in another text: "Together we did great things and together in the next two years we will complete the mission of eliminating the Iranian nuclear program."
Parallel to Netanyahu's requests to his great ally in the White House, representatives of the opposition in Israel established contacts with senior officials of the Trump Administration to ask that the president maintain neutrality and not intervene in an internal matter as clear as the elections.
"I have great appreciation for President Trump, a great friend of Israel, for his contribution to our national security and for having completed the agreement for the kidnapped people. At the same time, Israel is a democratic State and only Israeli citizens will decide who will be the next prime minister and what Government there will be," reacted the centrist Gadi Eisenkot, recalling that as chief of the General Staff he maintained "excellent relations" with the US army.
According to party leader Yashar! and Netanyahu's great rival, "the US Government will know how to work with any elected Government in Israel."
Most polls give Eisenkot victory, but his bloc does not have the majority (61 of 120 seats) to form a government. A blockade between the two blocs (Likud, two ultra-Orthodox parties and two ultra-nationalist formations versus three center-right parties and one left-wing party) without the active or passive intervention of the two Arab parties is a positive scenario for Netanyahu since it would allow him to remain transitional prime minister until the next election.
