President Donald Trump has called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial a “witch hunt” and called for it to be canceled.
“Such a WITCH HUNT, for a man who has given so much, is unthinkable to me,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. He added that he had just learned Netanyahu had been “summoned to court on Monday,” in the case which began in 2020.
“He deserves much better than this, and so does the State of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero,” Trump added.
Netanyahu is facing charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.
Prosecutors have alleged that he exchanged regulatory favors with media owners in Israel seeking positive press coverage.
He has also been accused him of accepting gifts — including cigars and champagne — in exchange for advancing the personal interests of Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. Prosecutors say these were worth hundreds of thousands of shekels.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and the first sitting Israeli leader to have taken the stand as a criminal defendant, has roundly denied the allegations against him, similarly branding them a “witch hunt.”
A verdict isn’t expected until 2026 at the earliest, while Netanyahu will also have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court.
One of Netanyahu’s main rivals, opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized Trump’s decision to weigh in on the proceedings. “With all due respect and gratitude to the president of the United States, he’s not supposed to intervene in a legal process of an independent state,” he told Israeli news website Ynet on Wednesday.
Trump’s supportive comments struck a different tone from just a day before when he admonished both Israel and Iran, accusing them of violating a ceasefire shortly after it was agreed to bring an end to 12 days of fighting between the Middle East rivals which began when Israeli forces first launched strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program on June 13.
After getting off to a rocky start, the ceasefire was swiftly reestablished after both nations launched strikes on each other early Tuesday drawing rebuke from Trump. It remained in affect early Thursday.
Netanyahu has faced repeated allegations throughout Israel’s war in Gaza, that he is delaying an end to the conflict to stall the corruption trial. He has cited the war and security concerns as his reasons for asking to postpone proceedings.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the enclave since mid-March when a brief two-month ceasefire came to an end.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 56,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in Israel’s assault, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the enclave.
