Netanyahu joins Trump for high-stakes meeting at the White House

NBC NEWS

The sit-down came at a politically fraught moment 

for the Israeli prime minister

Updated July 28, 2026, 9:39 AM PDT

By Monica Alba, Megan Brand, and Dareh Gregorian

President Donald Trump met with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday in a high-stakes sit-down that comes at a politically fraught moment for the Israeli prime minister.

The two leaders had been expected to discuss the war with Iran, the framework agreement for peace in Lebanon and efforts to expand the Abraham Accords, a White House official told NBC News prior to the meeting. Trump earlier Tuesday met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war, the official said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the meetings were “positive and productive.”

Netanyahu posted a series of photos of him and Trump meeting in the Oval Office, along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The Israeli prime minister has seen backing for the Iran war he’d long championed and launched along with the United States fall at home, and support for his government’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip plummet in the United States. Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing government in his country’s history, also faces elections in October.

The meeting is their first in person since the war began at the end of February. Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump, whom he’s repeatedly called “the greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House,” has appeared strained, as well. Asked Monday on Air Force One about Netanyahu criticizing his decision to sell F-35 jets to Turkey, Trump said, “Nobody tells me what we should be selling and not.”

Asked if he and Netanyahu were on the same page when it comes to Iran, Trump said, “We have a little difference, but pretty close.”

Netanyahu said at the start of an Israeli Cabinet meeting Sunday that he and Trump would discuss the state of the Iran war, which shows no signs of reaching a resolution.

This month, the U.S. carried out strikes for nearly two straight weeks, while Iran struck ships and American targets in the region. The sit-down will be their first face-to-face meeting since Axios reported last month that Trump had called Netanyahu “f---ing crazy” during a heated phone call. Trump confirmed the report was accurate in an interview with the New York Post. “I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon,” Trump said.

Asked about the confrontation, Netanyahu said he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements.” “We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends,” he said.

Trump has declined to say whether he supports Netanyahu for re-election. Earlier this month, he dodged a question, saying that Netanyahu has been “a great wartime president.”

“He’s been a great wartime prime minister,” Trump said this month. “I don’t know anything about his politics, I’m not sure. I would think he should be popular, because he did a very good job.”

The meeting also comes amid scrutiny from lawmakers over the administration’s handling of the war since the U.S. and Israel launched it in late February. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in recent days, bringing the total number of American troops killed during the war to 18.

NBC News has also previously reported that U.S. weapons stockpiles are diminishing and that U.S. military commanders are allowing some Iranian missiles and drones to pass U.S. defenses to preserve the weapons supply. At the same time, the Defense Department is requesting that Congress approve an additional $67 billion in supplemental funding to expand weapons production and speed up delivery.

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, argued in an interview on “Meet the Press” that the U.S. “has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be.”

Asked whether Trump had decided against escalating attacks on Iran, Waltz said that the president was giving talks between the two nations “some space” but that all options remained on the table.

In an interview Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Netanyahu said that the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services “are working so close together that it’s not that I’m going to present new information, but I think it’s a good thing to have the opportunity to sit with our good friend President Trump and to hear what he has in mind, because I think in many ways it’s his decision.”

“But let me say one thing, and I think that I should say it very, very clearly: If Iran attacks Israel, either directly or through proxies, either with ballistic missiles or UAVs or killer drones, it will make a terrible mistake, because our response, Israel’s response, will be very, very forceful,” Netanyahu said.

Last week, Trump said that Saudi Arabia must normalize relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords in order for him to approve a civil nuclear deal with the country. Netanyahu said on Fox News on Sunday that he believed Trump was “absolutely right in stating that condition.”

Netanyahu will also attend the memorial service for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was a staunch supporter of Israel and an Iran hawk. Netanyahu praised Graham in his remarks Sunday to his Cabinet, calling him “a great friend of Israel.”

“I must say, he was one of Israel’s greatest friends since its inception, and we should pay him this respect,” Netanyahu said of Graham.

Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. also comes days after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a video posted to X that the city does not have the legal authority to arrest the Israeli prime minister if he travels there for the United Nations General Assembly in September. In the same video, Mamdani called on the federal government to join the International Criminal Court and execute its warrant to arrest Netanyahu.

The U.S. is not a party to the ICC, the world’s top war crimes court. Trump responded to Mamdani’s comments, saying in a Truth Social post last week that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

Netanyahu said on “Sunday Morning Futures” that he intends to travel to New York City for the General Assembly.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in 2024, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

They said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges Israeli officials deny.