Former US President and Republican presidential nominee on Friday quipped that his “secret weapon” in maintaining a good relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.
Trump, who hosted the Netanyahus at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, took a question about his relationship with the Prime Minister, which had been tense since Trump left the White House.
“No President has done what I’ve done for Israel, and we’ve always had a very good relationship, and if I didn’t, I have a secret weapon. You know what it is? Sara, sitting right over here,” Trump replied, and then added, as everyone in the room laughed, “As long as I have Sara, that’s all that matters.”
Trump and Netanyahu were close during Trump’s time as President, but since leaving office, the former President has several times openly criticized Netanyahu.
In one notable incident, Trump infamously cursed Netanyahu in an interview with journalist Barak Ravid in December of 2021. The former President had taken issue with the fact that Netanyahu was one of the first leaders to congratulate Joe Biden after his election win.
"I haven’t spoken to him since," Trump said of Netanyahu. "F**k him."
This past October, Trump criticized Netanyahu in a speech in Florida over the elimination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was eliminated in a US air strike in Iraq in 2020.
In April, in an interview with TIME Magazine, Trump said that Hamas’ October 7 massacre against Israel “happened on [Netanyahu’s] watch.”
However, last week Trump shared to his Truth Social platform a video of Netanyahu condemning the assassination attempt against Trump.
Some viewed Trump’s sharing of Netanyahu’s video as a sign that the former President and Republican presidential nominee seeks to open a new chapter in relations with Netanyahu.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)