Trump to JNS: If Israel had wrong prime minister, it wouldn’t exist
“He’s a wartime prime minister,” the U.S. president told JNS. “Israel, with other people, might not exist right now.”
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands
U.S. President Donald Trump credited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday for guiding the Jewish state to victory over a “force the likes of which very few countries could have handled.”
JNS asked Trump about his relationship with the Israeli premier.
“He’s a wartime prime minister,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “He’s taken Israel through a very dangerous period of drama.”
Standing alongside Netanyahu at a press conference outside the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump said that under other leadership, Israel “might not exist right now.”
“That’s a pretty big statement, but it’s true,” Trump said. “If you had the wrong prime minister, Israel right now would not exist.”
Trump expressed surprise that Netanyahu has yet to receive a pardon from Israeli President Isaac Herzog over the premier’s ongoing trial for alleged bribery.
“How do you not give a pardon?” Trump said. “I spoke to the president. He tells me it’s on its way.”
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