Trump sets out to ‘save Bibi Netanyahu’ with bombshell call to drop all charges
In doing so, the president is not only correcting the misdeeds of his predecessors, he is calling for Israel’s democracy and national security to be strengthened.
By Alex Traiman
JNS
Jun 26, 2025
Less than a week after dropping the world’s most powerful non-nuclear bombs on the Fordow nuclear facility—an existential threat to Israel’s security—U.S. President Donald Trump has now dropped a bomb on Israel’s legal establishment—an existential threat to Israel’s ability to function as a democracy.
In a lengthy bombshell post on his Truth Social platform, Trump insisted that the corruption trials that have been following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are a “WITCH HUNT” and are “politically motivated … in order to do him great harm.”
Trump stated that Netanyahu “has done so much for the State,” and that “there is no one that I know who could have worked in better harmony with the President of the United States, ME, than Bibi Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero. … THIS TRAVESTY OF ‘JUSTICE’ CAN NOT BE ALLOWED!”
The post doused ice-cold water on the firestorm of articles by mainstream U.S. sources and left-wing Israeli media over the past months that have cast doubt as to whether Trump was steadfastly supporting Israel, or insisting that Netanyahu was ruining ties with the most supportive U.S. administration Israel has ever had.
To the contrary, there could not be a friendlier gesture by an American president.
Particularly, a president who knows firsthand the tribulations Netanyahu has faced, as a head of state under a politicized criminal investigation.
By hook or by crook
For years, the Israeli left has wanted Netanyahu out of office by hook or by crook. And when hook didn’t work, after Israeli citizens “incorrectly” voted for Netanyahu in election after election, the left turned to its elitist-controlled state prosecution and court system to attack Netanyahu by crook.
Announcements that the prosecution first was about to “investigate” Netanyahu, and then to “indict” Netanyahu, came just weeks before elections during Israel’s deadlocked multiple campaign cycle. The announcements were specifically designed to convince Israeli voters that they were voting for a criminal. Yet, the plurality of Israeli voters refused to be convinced. That did not stop the prosecution from pressing on.
Grounds for a mistrial
The charges of bribery and breach of trust have proven themselves to be an abject disaster for the prosecution. After naming more than 200 witnesses in an attempt to prove that Netanyahu is a criminal, the court has forced the prosecution to change its charge sheet on three separate occasions. In the United States, each would represent grounds for a mistrial.
After the prosecution finished its examination in the trial, the court explicitly stated that there was zero case for bribery—the most severe charge. Instead of dropping the charge, the prosecution insisted that the case would be proven during the defense’s presentation.
Meanwhile, the trial has continued, with the court forcing Netanyahu to testify for nearly two full days a week, and to do so during wartime, when Israel has been fighting for its existence.
In the lesser charges, the prosecution accuses Netanyahu of breach of trust for accepting as much as $230,000 in gifts from longtime friends, including, as Trump stated in his pos,t “cigars, a Bugs Bunny doll and numerous other unfair charges.”
Much of the “evidence” brought in the charges against Netanyahu was collected in a wider witch hunt against Netanyahu’s associates. Furthermore, the state’s witnesses against Netanyahu were coerced and blackmailed to testify.
In America, any product of this type of prosecutorial misconduct is referred to as “fruit of the poisonous tree,” evidence that is tainted by illegality and inadmissible in court.
Handcuffing the prime minister
In Israel, the prime minister by nature already has to spend much of his time fending off constant coalition crises and routine no-confidence motions brought by the opposition. On top of that, the court has forced Netanyahu to spend time not only testifying but preparing for a trial.
In forcing Netanyahu to stand trial, the court is prohibiting the prime minister from dedicating the necessary attention to the affairs of state and war. The court understands this, and the attorney general has suggested she could use the trial as grounds for declaring the prime minister incapable of functioning and ordering his removal from office. Meanwhile, Israeli law is explicit that a prime minister is not required to resign while under trial, and even if convicted, until all legal appeals are exhausted.
The very fact that Netanyahu could competently run a multifront war for Israel’s very survival, with physical and diplomatic battlefronts, on top of his intense domestic political and legal challenges, is a true testament to his greatness as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
As Trump wrote, “Bibi and I just went through HELL together, fighting a very tough and brilliant longtime enemy of Israel, Iran, and Bibi could not have been better, sharper, or stronger in his LOVE for the incredible Holy Land.”
Trump validates Israeli voters
In coming to his defense, Trump is making it known that he clearly believes Israel is stronger with Netanyahu in power, and that the U.S.-Israel relationship is stronger with Netanyahu in office—at least as long as Trump is the president.
For the left, which has tried so vehemently to get Netanyahu out of office over the last five years, Trump’s statement represents a massive blow. It is a direct validation to Israel’s voters that they have chosen correctly time after time, and that Trump does not wish for one second to see Netanyahu resign over the failures that led to Oct. 7.
Yet many in Israel are now crying that Trump is interfering with Israel’s domestic politics. Nothing could be further from the case.
To the contrary, Trump is throwing his full support behind the people’s choice, behind a national leader who has won more free and fair democratic elections than any other world leader. And he wants to see Netanyahu unshackled by the political witch hunt that has handcuffed his efforts to address Israel’s greatest challenges and opportunities.
Biden’s intervention
Furthermore, in overtly supporting Netanyahu, Trump is correcting the misdeeds as well as the direct meddling of the Obama and Biden administrations.
In March, the U.S. House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees launched an investigation into six Israeli and American organizations that received federal funding during the Biden administration that the committees allege may have been used to “undermine the standing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu” during national protests against the government’s proposed judicial reforms in the summer of 2023.
Those protests, which included calls by left-wing Air Force pilots and reservists not to show up for duty if called by the government to defend the country, sent direct signals to Israel’s enemies—including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran—that Israel was vulnerable to attack. The protests proved to be extremely harmful to Israel’s national security. It is not a stretch to conclude that they were one of the factors that led to the nearly two-year war that Trump is now helping Israel navigate to its conclusion.
Congressional investigation
In a bid to investigate how U.S. funds were channeled into the protest movement, Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Brian Mast, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to the organizations, accusing the Biden administration of using government funding to “harm Israel’s democratically elected government.”
“According to reports, the Biden-Harris administration directed American taxpayer money to certain Israeli entities in a manner intended to undermine Israel’s democratically elected government,” the letter stated. “The use of federal grants in this way not only jeopardizes the U.S.-Israel relationship but also violates basic civil rights protections in both countries. Furthermore, the misuse of federal grant money could, in some cases, constitute a criminal offense.”
According to the allegations, the Biden administration, through the State Department and USAID, has directed at least $4.8 million directly—and tens of millions indirectly—to Israeli NGOs involved in efforts to oppose Netanyahu’s government.
“USAID and the State Department have even provided direct support to Hamas and other terrorist groups. Between 2007 and 2024, USAID and the State Department transferred at least $122 million to NGOs linked to designated terrorist organizations. Many of these groups have openly expressed antisemitic rhetoric and incited violence against Jews,” the lawmakers charged.
Calls for Bibi to resign
In addition to the funding, the Biden administration led a public campaign of open statements by surrogates and leaks citing anonymous senior sources alleging that Biden was fed up with Netanyahu, and that Israel should hold early elections barely 18 months after Netanyahu’s right-wing camp won a definitive victory over the Israeli left.
In an interview with MSNBC in February 2024, Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state under President Obama, stated that “Netanyahu should go. He is not a trustworthy leader. It was on his watch that the [Oct. 7, 2023] attack happened. He needs to go, and if he’s an obstacle to a ceasefire, if he’s an obstacle to exploring what’s to be done the day after, he absolutely needs to go.”
Just a month later, in a speech given from the floor of the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has long declared himself the shomer or “guardian” of Israel, said that Netanyahu was a “major obstacle to peace.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer, adding that “Netanyahu has also weakened Israel’s political and moral fabric through his attempts to co-opt the judiciary.”
Schumer stated his belief that “a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.”
In a post on Truth Social this week, Trump let his feelings for his fellow New Yorker be known, referencing the “Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, whose career is definitely on very thin ice!”
Restoring Israel’s national security
In calling for Israel’s judiciary to drop the charges against Netanyahu, Trump is not only correcting the misdeeds of his predecessors but also calling for Israel’s democracy and resulting national security to be strengthened.
Aside from the unjust politicized prosecutions, both the court and the attorney general have long been interfering in governmental affairs. Most recently, the legal oligarchy attempted to block Netanyahu’s removal of Shin Bet internal security service chief Ronen Bar.
Bar was the acting security chief during the breach of Israel’s border with Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. And Netanyahu has repeatedly charged that Bar did not reach out to Netanyahu until 6:29 a.m., after the attack was well underway.
Furthermore, according to Netanyahu, Bar was undermining the prime minister’s directives on hostage negotiations and backchanneling with the U.S. government. Netanyahu similarly fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for the same insubordinate behavior.
The legal oligarchy’s efforts came despite Israeli law explicitly stating that “The government is entitled to end the service of the head of the Shin Bet before the end of his term of office.”
Yet the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, insisted that Netanyahu should not be permitted to fire Bar, because the Shin Bet had just launched an investigation into whether Netanyahu’s associates took illicit funds to promote Qatari interests while serving in public posts, and therefore Netanyahu would have a conflict of interest in dismissing the head of the security service. Netanyahu has charged that the investigation was launched specifically to give the attorney general a lever to block the dismissal.
Meanwhile, Bar has since resigned of his own accord, over his sense of responsibility for the Oct. 7 massacre. Yet even still, the court has been stalling Netanyahu’s ability to appoint David Zini as the head of the security agency—this during wartime.
The High Court is not only interfering in the functioning of the executive branch of government. It is interfering in the nation’s national security, as Israel presently has to manage with an interim head of the Shin Bet.
Presidential pardon
Trump is providing clarity after years of lies and distortions from the Israeli legal system, the Israeli left, the media and the Biden administration.
Netanyahu “has been going through this ‘Horror Show’ since May of 2020,” Trump wrote.
The prosecution and the court could do the right thing once and for all by dismissing the charges. They are unlikely to do so. Yet, as Trump correctly noted, there is another pathway to ending this prosecutorial disaster and restoring justice to the “great hero” Netanyahu.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog can put this crisis to bed once and for all by issuing a presidential pardon. Herzog was previously a rival who ran against Netanyahu in the 2015 elections. Furthermore, during those elections, the State Department, under Obama, directed funds and political consultants to the V15 movement set up to aid Herzog’s campaign.
Yet Herzog has always fashioned himself as a moderate and a unifier, whose father, Chaim Herzog, was also president of Israel, and whose grandfather, Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog, was Israel’s first chief rabbi.
If Trump’s bombshell Truth Social post leads to a pardon or the dropping of charges, it would represent a vindication of Netanyahu’s innocence, as well as of his tremendous accomplishments as prime minister. Chief among those accomplishments is the daring and successful destruction of Iran’s nuclear program, in what Trump has aptly termed the 12-Day War.
Yet more importantly, it would pave the path for Netanyahu and Trump to focus on resolving the urgent refugee crisis in Gaza, with the resettlement of willing Gazans outside the war-torn Strip. And then, the fulfillment of Netanyahu and Trump’s joint vision of peace across the Middle East, with the signing of normalization agreements for Israel with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim-majority nations.
Netanyahu deserved Trump’s post irrespective of the stunning victory over Iran. Yet, with his bombing of the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear reactors, Trump has earned near-limitless credit with the Israeli public. Trump’s bold actions not only ended Iran’s nuclear program once and for all, but they also forced Iran to beg for a ceasefire, bringing the conflict to a close in just 12 days. Israelis will be forever grateful for Trump’s actions and for his clarity of vision.
Trump already had much credit following his move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, and many other pro-Israel moves.
Let’s see whether the court or Israel’s president will permit the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House to cash in some of that well-earned credit by restoring justice and unshackling Israel’s indispensable leader.
In making his plea, Trump insists that “It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu.”
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