Netanyahu secures second Trump endorsement one day before contentious elections

U.S. President Donald Trump released a second endorsement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on social media overnight on Sunday.

In the post on his Truth Social account, Trump reshared an endorsement he issued last week for Netanyahu and spoke of his “great relationship” with the prime minister.

“To the people of Israel, to those who haven’t seen it, I am attaching the Endorsement I gave one week ago to your Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu. As everyone is aware, including the enemy, Bibi and I have had a great relationship in winning together,” Trump wrote.

The U.S. president noted the joint U.S.-Israeli military operations in Iran, writing, “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!”

After the initial endorsement last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu and several political allies quickly leveraged the support in their campaign. Images from Netanyahu’s Likud party showed the prime minister standing next to Trump with the slogan, “We have one chance to win!”

Trump's second endorsement came just hours after Netanyahu shared a post on social media warning of the Iranian nuclear threat, accompanied by an AI-generated image of an atomic explosion over Tel Aviv.

In the post, Netanyahu claimed that Israel has two years to finish the job in Iran before Trump’s term ends.

“The State of Israel faces a real and tangible existential danger,” Netanyahu wrote. “If the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, nothing will ever be the same again. Everything is so trivial compared to the existential threat of Iran and the Shiite axis.”

Netanyahu said Israel has “another two years of Trump to finish the work in Iran, and there's no telling what will come after that – whether it's Kamala Harris or some other mediocre figure.”

Trump's endorsements came despite recent reports in Hebrew media stating that Washington was interested in seeing a broad unity government between Netanyahu and Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot after the elections.

Current polls continue to show a potential deadlock between Netanyahu's coalition bloc and the Zionist opposition bloc, possibly leading to a stalemate and repeat elections.

At the same time, an Axios report claimed that Netanyahu repeatedly contacted Trump over the past week to seek more public support ahead of the elections, hoping to secure a majority.

Although Trump has worked with no Israeli prime minister other than Netanyahu, a U.S. official told Axios the president would be able to work with whichever government comes to power.

Meanwhile, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told MS Now that Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu would not influence his decision on which party to support in forming a coalition.

“I don’t think the president of the United States or anybody else can intervene in my discretion – the discretion has to be based on certain facts, and we will see what the facts are,” Herzog said. “There will be a lot of pressure, though, regardless.”