Trump said to call Netanyahu ‘his own worst enemy’ as PM vies for election endorsement

US President Donald Trump referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “his own worst enemy” recently, according to sources close to the president, in a blow to Netanyahu’s hopes that the White House will endorse him ahead of his October 27 reelection bid.

Far from an endorsement, however, the remark reported by Axios on Friday appeared to be the latest crack in the relationship between the two strongmen, despite their insistence that they are good friends, and Netanyahu’s visit to Washington last month.

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During that visit, Axios reported that Tump questioned Netanyahu about his election prospects, asking how he was faring in opinion polls.

Netanyahu hesitated, an official familiar with the matter told the news outlet, before one of his aides answered for him, saying: “Mr. President, he is winning.”

Most polls, including those conducted by The Times of Israel’s sister site Zman Yisrael, have Netanyahu’s Likud neck-and-neck with or, more recently, falling behind his main challenger, Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot.

They also show Netanyahu’s coalition bloc falling to around 50 seats in the 120-member Knesset, with Eisenkot appearing better positioned to form a government.

Delving into why Trump hasn’t endorsed Netanyahu ahead of the upcoming election, Axios confirmed that the Israeli premier’s poor performance in the polls is, in part, what has led the president to so far refrain from doing so.

Citing two senior officials, the outlet said that although the US president likes the Israeli prime minister personally, he has also been frustrated with some of his policies and decisions as of late, particularly pertaining to Iran, Lebanon and Gaza.

“Bibi is his own worst enemy,” Trump said about Netanyahu, according to two people who have spoken to the president recently.

Despite Trump’s apparent reluctance to put his weight behind Netanyahu’s reelection bid, the premier’s rivals Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have still expressed concern that he will eventually do so, according to two of the opposition leaders’ aides who spoke to Axios.

Accordingly, the opposition figures have funneled back-channel messages to Trump’s circle urging him to remain neutral, the aides said.

Trump has made a habit of endorsing his allies around the world in their respective leadership bids, and most recently endorsed Colombia’s Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office earlier this month.

Previous US leaders have avoided endorsing specific Israeli candidates.

In June, Trump acknowledged that he would “most likely” endorse Netanyahu, but said he would have to see who he was running against first.

The two leaders have butted heads several times in recent months, with Netanyahu reportedly derided by Trump as “fucking crazy” and having “no fucking judgement,” first over Washington’s push for diplomacy with Iran that left Israel out in the cold, and more recently over Israeli military action in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, Netanyahu announced in a weekly cabinet meeting that Israel had rejected the Board of Peace roadmap for the disarmament of Gaza, and pushed back against claims that he had accepted Trump’s vision for the Strip.

Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his peace plan for the Strip, in the form of a 15-point proposal for the IDF to withdraw and Hamas to hand over its weapons.

Netanyahu told the cabinet that the IDF would not withdraw without a “genuine disarmament” process.

He also insisted that he knew how to stand up to Trump, both about Gaza and Iran, saying that Israel knows “how to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary.”

Despite his claim, IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip told Channel 12 on Monday that the rules of engagement have changed dramatically since the disarmament roadmap was publicized, suggesting that there are quiet agreements with the board to drastically rein in operations.

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