President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in "pretty good shape now" after his Likud party defied election-night projections, and the president left the door open to personally intervening in Israel's coalition talks as the country's political blocs struggle to assemble a governing majority, according to an interview with Axios.
Trump told the outlet he initially received "horror reports" about Netanyahu's electoral prospects before learning the prime minister had fared considerably better than early projections suggested. "I heard my endorsement made a big difference for Bibi," the president said, referring to his public backing of Netanyahu during the closing stretch of the campaign.
The numbers tell the story of a race that flipped overnight. Likud emerged as Israel's largest single party, and Netanyahu's governing coalition performed considerably better than several major polls had projected — but provisional figures reported by Breitbart put the coalition at 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, short of the 61 needed to govern. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party captured 21 seats, while predominantly Arab parties nearly doubled their representation to 19 seats, according to provisional figures from Israel's Central Elections Committee.
Asked whether he might become involved in efforts to establish a Netanyahu-led unity government, Trump said he had not previously considered the possibility but did not rule it out. "I will take a look," he said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog urged political leaders on Wednesday to make every effort to avoid another election and to approach coalition consultations with an open mind, according to reporting cited by the Times of Israel. If neither side can secure a parliamentary majority, Israel could face another election as early as April.
Roughly 500,000 votes remain to be counted, including ballots cast by soldiers, diplomats, prisoners and voters who voted outside their designated polling areas. Those outstanding ballots could alter the distribution of seats within the competing blocs, though they are not expected to significantly change the overall balance of power, the Associated Press-style assessments cited in coverage note.
The prospect of American involvement drew immediate pushback from within the administration. An American official told the Times of Israel that the Trump administration had made no decision to intervene, describing reports identifying specific coalition arrangements supposedly favored by Washington as "false and premature" and stressing that results were still coming in. Separately, an American official told i24NEWS that Trump might wait several weeks before attempting to bring Netanyahu and Eisenkot together, potentially inviting both men to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
That reporting was echoed in a post on X by i24NEWS English, which wrote: "US official to i24NEWS: Trump may wait to 'see which way the wind blows', then tell Eisenkot and Netanyahu 'come on down to Mar-a-Lago' to close a deal." Israeli journalist Amit Segal also posted on X: "Trump: I'll see if there's a way I can help form a unity government in Israel."
The deadlock has intensified discussion of a national unity government, though Netanyahu's principal rivals have resisted joining him. Eisenkot's path to a majority would require Arab party support — something he spent the campaign equivocating on and some of his own allies flatly reject, according to the Dissenter. Netanyahu's path requires pulling partners across the aisle. Neither math is easy.
Trump had taken credit for Netanyahu's performance earlier Wednesday on Truth Social, writing that "when President Trump endorsed Bibi Netanyahu, the whole tide turned, and now, rather than a decisive defeat for a Great Prime Minister, it looks like a big come-from-behind stalemate, or even a WIN for Netanyahu." The post added that the shift "all took place AFTER the Endorsement by President Trump, who only wants what is good for the Middle East, Israel, and the United States of America."
Netanyahu spoke of his relationship with Trump during the campaign, calling the president a close ally and saying their partnership presents Israel with an opportunity to address the threat from Iran.
Our Take
Here's what the legacy media won't tell you plainly: the same pundits who wrote Netanyahu's political obituary before breakfast were forced to eat their words by dawn. The polls were wrong — again — and the president who put his credibility on the line for an ally got it right. Trump didn't just watch this election from the sidelines; he weighed in, and by his own account and the evidence of the results, it moved votes.
Now the question is whether Washington should insert itself into another nation's coalition bargaining. There's a strong America First case for restraint: Israel's leaders, not American officials, should sort out their own Knesset math, and the administration's own officials are right to pour cold water on premature reports of backroom deals. But there's also a case that a president with real relationships on both sides — Netanyahu and Eisenkot alike — can do what bureaucrats cannot: pick up the phone and force a deal that keeps a stable, U.S.-aligned government in Jerusalem instead of dragging Israel into a fourth election in a handful of years.
What patriots should watch closely is the Arab party surge to 19 seats. That is a real shift in Israeli politics, and any unity government will have to reckon with it — or around it. The president says he'll "take a look." Americans should hold him to something better than a photo op: if Trump gets involved, it should be to secure an outcome that protects the U.S.-Israel alliance and the Iran strategy he and Netanyahu built. Nothing less is worth the flight to Mar-a-Lago.
