Despite occasional irritations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump has made unconditional US backing of the Israeli leader and his far-right government an essential component of his foreign policy. This stance stems largely from Trump’s belief that strongly supporting Netanyahu will please the president’s supporters and differentiate him from some of his Democratic Party opponents who want US pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war in Gaza, to address the humanitarian crisis there, and to promote a two-state solution. In fact, recent polls indicate that the Trump administration’s support of the Netanyahu government is
out of sync not only with most Democrats but with independent voters whose support Trump needs. Divisions have even emerged recently within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) base over unconditional American support for Israel’s right-wing government. Although the 2026 mid-term elections are likely to focus on economic issues, Trump’s staunch support for the Israeli right-wing agenda could become a liability for the Republican Party in these elections because, unlike other mid-term elections, this one will likely be a referendum on the president himself.
Some Differences
As political analysts have noted, Trump’s foreign policy is centered on the personal and the transactional. During his first term in office, Trump provided Netanyahu with numerous political favors such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US Embassy to that city, closing the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights, and supporting an Israeli-Palestinian “peace plan” drafted largely by his son-in-law Jared Kushner that was skewed heavily toward Israel. Netanyahu was indeed pleased by Trump’s right-wing moves and thanked the president effusively for his “leadership and friendship” for the announcement on the embassy move. Trump benefitted politically from these positions, especially in terms of his staunch support from right-wing evangelical voters and growing popularity among some hawkish Jewish voters. But he took it as a personal affront when Netanyahu quickly congratulated former President Joe Biden upon winning the 2020 presidential election that Trump claimed was rigged. It took several years—and a kiss-and-make-up session at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort—for this relationship to rebound.
Trump has been irritated that he has not been able to end Israel’s war in Gaza quickly.
During his second term in office, Trump has been irritated that he has not been able to end Israel’s war in Gaza quickly, as he had promised during the 2024 presidential campaign. His failure so far to secure a ceasefire hurts his self-promotion as a great peace-maker and as a future winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. In July 2025 his annoyance surfaced when he
seemed to contradict Netanyahu’s claim that there was no famine in Gaza by saying that he had seen “real starvation” on television. And after the United States joined Israel in attacking Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, Trump crudely called out Israel (and Iran) for not adhering to the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire, saying that both countries “don’t know what the [expletive] they’re doing.”
Trump: Netanyahu’s Protector
Yet despite Trump’s occasional public displays of irritation, the president’s general posture has been to support Netanyahu and his extremist government to the hilt. Early in his second term, for example, Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers who had been involved in violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. And he ordered the delivery of the 2,000-pound bombs whose delivery to Israel Biden had suspended because of their devastating effect on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Trump’s message was that he was giving Israel full backing (even more than Biden generally did) regardless of what crimes and atrocities Israel has committed.
Trump has also taken aim at Israel’s critics. His administration has imposed sanctions on judges and prosecutors from the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli minister of defense Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed in Gaza. The administration also has harshly criticized European countries for supporting an independent Palestinian state. On July 24, 2025, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio stated that France’s decision to officially recognize a Palestinian state at the September 2025 UN General Assembly was “reckless,” propaganda for Hamas, and “slap in the face to victims of October 7.” President Trump said that he was “not in that camp” of countries that would recognize a Palestinian state, claiming that “you’re rewarding Hamas if you do that.” As for French President Emmanuel Macron’s support for Palestinian statehood, Trump said dismissively, “what he says doesn’t matter… [and his] statement does not carry weight.”
Retreat from the Two-State Solution
Outside of his shocking February 2025 statement that the Gaza Strip should be depopulated so that it could be developed into a “Middle East Riviera,” Trump has not commented in his second term on what he envisions for a future settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During the last presidential campaign, Trump told TIME in April 2024 that he no longer supported a two-state solution: “There was a time when I thought two states could work. Now I think two states is going to be very, very tough…I also think you have fewer people who liked the idea.” Trump’s retreat from the two-state policy which every US president since George W. Bush has supported, at least rhetorically, suggests that he does not want to upset his right-wing voters who, like Netanyahu, oppose Palestinian statehood.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly urged Israel to “finish the job” and “destroy Hamas,” a position in his second term that has played out by being Netanyahu’s enabler. In addition, in a major reversal from decades of stated US foreign policy, the Trump administration has publicly backed Israel’s plan to expand illegal settlements as well as its claim of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. After Netanyahu’s government announced in August 2025 plans to build more than 3,000 homes between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, a large settlement project that the far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich boasted would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” the Trump administration was silent about it, implying approval. Instead, it merely issued a bland statement: “A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region.” The Trump administration then referred questions on this issue to the Israeli government for further information. Never mind that such a settlement plan further reduces the land for a Palestinian state, is likely to exacerbate already high tensions in the West Bank, and is illegal.
Although Trump has remained silent on such settlement building in his second term, during his first term his administration stated that the United States does not consider settlements a violation of international law. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in November 2019 that previous US statements to the contrary had “not advanced the cause of peace” and that the new position recognized “the reality on the ground.” That Trump has not changed this position in his second term means that this is still his stance on the issue.
Although Trump has remained silent on such settlement building in his second term, during his first term his administration stated that the United States does not consider settlements a violation of international law.
Trump has also touted his relationship with Netanyahu, praising the prime minister as a “good man” and a “war hero” for his June 2025 attack on Iran, adding that “I guess I am a war hero too” for also ordering US air strikes on the Islamic Republic in that conflict. Trump probably hopes that a close relationship with Netanyahu will continue to reap political benefits for him with his voting base. Trump, acting as Netanyahu’s lawyer, also stated in June 2025 that he was “shocked” to hear that the State of Israel was “continuing its ridiculous Witch Hunt against their Great War Time Prime Minister.” Trump added that the corruption charges against Netanyahu should be cancelled immediately and underscored it was the United States that not only saved Israel but will now be the one that “saves Bibi Netanyahu.”
Trump’s comments prompted a retort from Israeli opposition figure Yair Lapid who called it interference in a “legal process in an independent country.” Undeterred, Netanyahu, reacting to Trump’s statement, said he was “deeply moved” by this “heartfelt” and “incredible” support Trump had shown for him, hoping that this unconditional endorsement will somehow work to remove the corruption charges against him.
Shifting Political Winds in the United States
Although a strong majority of Republicans still support Israeli military action in Gaza, concern over Israel’s actions there, especially recent images of Palestinian children suffering and dying of hunger, appear to have changed some Americans’ view of the situation in Gaza, even among some members of Trump’s MAGA base. A Gallup poll of early to mid-July 2025 found that only 32 percent of Americans now support Israeli military actions in Gaza—a decrease of 10 percentage points since September 2024—and 52 percent of Americans now hold negative views of Netanyahu. More notably, support for Israel among the American public has dropped to a record low of 37 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released in June 2025. And a summer 2025 poll by Reuters and Ipsos indicated that 58 percent of Americans now believe that all UN members should recognize Palestine as an independent state, a position that the Israeli government, and the Trump administration, strongly oppose.
58% of Americans now believe that all UN members should recognize Palestine as an independent state.
A summer 2025 poll by Reuters and Ipsos indicated that 58 percent of Americans now believe that all UN members should recognize Palestine as an independent state, a position that the Israeli government, and the Trump administration, strongly oppose.
Some prominent MAGA figures have raised alarms over the situation in Gaza. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), a MAGA stalwart, recently stated, “I don’t want to pay for genocide in a foreign country against a foreign people for a foreign war that I had nothing to do with.” Greene has also highlighted the suffering of Palestinian children and said the Palestinian people should not be blamed for the acts of Hamas. And conservative commentator Tucker Carlson criticized the Trump administration for indulging Israel and called on it to drop its support for that country.
A Mid-term Election Issue?
Trump may take comfort in the fact that his protection of the Netanyahu government’s illegal actions is still supported by more than two-thirds of his fellow Republicans. Yet polling data suggest that he is increasingly out-of-touch with the majority of Americans who are alarmed at the high human toll: more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, have died or been killed in Gaza since October 2023. In the 2024 election, Trump won because he not only received support from the vast majority of Republicans but also from a majority of independent voters in key battleground states. Now, the latter voting bloc (some 34 percent of the electorate), already upset over Trump’s policies on the economy and immigration, may hold Trump’s Israel policies against him as well. Although most mid-term election outcomes reflect the voters’ views of the party in power, this time around it will likely be a referendum on Trump as president since he has dominated the political discourse with his controversial policies. Unless he ends this war and improves the terrible plight of Palestinian civilians, his pro-Netanyahu strategy may backfire on the Republicans in the 2026 mid-term elections.
The views expressed in this publication are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab Center Washington DC, its staff, or its Board of Directors.
Featured image credit: Flickr/The White House
