Is Trump targeting Netanyahu?

January 09, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after speaking to reporters before their meeting at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on May 22, 2017.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President-elect Donald Trump raised eyebrows this week by sharing a video clip on his Truth Social account that shows economist Jeffrey Sachs trashing Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The edited two-minute-long video shows Sachs accusing Netanyahu of manipulating Washington into involvement in Middle East wars the US should have avoided.

The video clip begins with what Sachs describes as dishonest US interventions in Iraq, under George W. Bush, and Syria, under Barack Obama. But the focus quickly turns to the Israeli PM. Netanyahu “is nothing if not obsessive, and he’s still trying to get us to fight Iran this day, this week,” warns Sachs, who also referred to Netanyahu in the clip as a “deep, dark son of a bitch.”

Why did Trump share this video with his nearly 8.5 million Truth Social followers? Is this a warning to Netanyahu not to attack Iran in ways that force a US intervention in a Middle East war that Trump is determined to avoid? His Cabinet picks – particularly Marco Rubio for secretary of state, Mike Waltz as national security advisor, and Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador – are considered adamantly pro-Israel.

The incoming president has criticized and threatened a number of US allies since his election win in November, and we’ll have to keep watching to see whether Trump is formulating a new Middle East strategy.

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