In an exclusive on-camera interview with Channel 14, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded directly to United States President Donald Trump’s open endorsement of his leadership ahead of Israel’s upcoming national elections on October 27.
Speaking with C14’s Head of the International Division, Sophia Tupolev, the Prime Minister framed Trump’s public backing not as foreign political interference, but as a genuine assessment of mutual strategic interests. “He’s speaking from the heart and from his understanding of what benefits the United States,” Netanyahu said, referring to Trump’s recent statements calling him a “great fighter” indispensable to both Israeli security and American objectives in the region.
Netanyahu praised the American president for his “clarity and courage,” underscoring that the close personal and working dynamic between the two leaders continues to generate “historic consequences” for regional stability, military alignment, and the confrontation against the Iranian regime.
Addressing critics who questioned the propriety of an American president offering an explicit endorsement ahead of an Israeli democratic vote, Netanyahu pushed back by referencing the long history of subtle and overt foreign involvement in Israeli politics. The Prime Minister alluded to how past U.S. administrations had routinely worked behind the scenes to bolster his domestic political opponents, tracing the phenomenon back to President Bill Clinton’s active intervention in the 1996 Israeli election campaign. Netanyahu noted that unlike past administrations that sought to influence Israeli domestic politics to install leaders aligned with concessions, Trump’s stance represents a transparent alignment of shared geopolitical goals, joint deterrence against common adversaries, and a unified strategy to eliminate the Iranian threat.