Trump said he had not thought about endorsing Netanyahu. Five days later he endorsed him
The Truth Social endorsement on 18 October, and Netanyahu’s reply the next day, close a loop the Israeli press has been documenting since mid-October.
President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu on Truth Social on Sunday 18 October. The Times of Israel’s item, timestamped 9:25pm, described a “complete and total endorsement” of “warrior” Netanyahu, and reported Trump saying Netanyahu is the only candidate who would not leave Washington alone in the fight against Iran. Reuters noted this is Israel’s first vote since 7 October 2023. Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett both responded that only Israeli voters will decide. On Monday, per a Haaretz liveblog entry timestamped 7:37pm, Netanyahu told Trump on a call: “We have a job to finish; you said it, and we will finish it together. And no one else will do it.” The Times of Israel headlined the same call: “'We have a job to finish': Netanyahu invokes Iran in call with Trump after endorsement.”
The reversal is on the record. In a Times of Israel report dated roughly 13–14 October — the same piece carrying a television report that Netanyahu had pressed Trump to renew fighting with Iran before the Israeli and American elections, with Trump saying “go ahead and prepare” but not committing to approve a strike — Trump claimed he had “not even thought about” an endorsement. The Prime Minister’s Office denied the pressure report. Separately, Haaretz reported on 14 October that Netanyahu told Army Radio he “hopes” there will be no flare-up before 27 October but that there are “signs,” while opposition lawmakers warned he may go to war before the vote to stay in power. On 19 October Haaretz reported Netanyahu unveiling a new security concept — preemptive strikes, underground weapons production, border buffer zones — nine days out.
Assessment: Two denials and a reversal sit in the same ten-day file: the PMO denied the Trump-pressure report, Trump denied contemplating an endorsement, and then the endorsement arrived. None of that proves the television report was right, but it does establish that denials from both offices have a short shelf life, which is the standard a reader should apply to everything said between now and the 27th. Note what Netanyahu’s reply does: it converts a foreign endorsement into a claim of exclusive capability — no one else will do it. That is the campaign’s entire proposition compressed into eleven words, and it is why the Iran file keeps surfacing on schedule.