Netanyahu Split: Vance Refuses to Echo Trump's Endorsement

Vice President JD Vance declined on Monday to endorse Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection, one day after President Donald Trump gave the Israeli prime minister his full backing in a weekend Truth Social post. The Netanyahu split between the president and vice president emerged in an interview Vance gave aboard Air Force Two to journalist Mark Halperin on "2WAY Tonight," conducted during a flight on Monday.

Asked directly whether he backed Netanyahu, Vance said he endorses "American candidates" and that his attention is fixed on next month's midterm elections. He stressed that the refusal should not be read as opposition, saying he was "not anti-endorsing him" and "not pro-endorsing him," and that he was staying out of Israel's election. He added that Trump has "the most effective endorsement in American or international political history," according to Politico, which first reported the remarks. Vance first deferred to his boss before declining to add an endorsement of his own.

Trump issued his endorsement over the weekend in a lengthy post on Truth Social, writing that it should serve as his "Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu" in the race for reelection and calling him a "Great Warrior Prime Minister." Trump closed the post with the line "BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" He warned that if Israel ended up with "the wrong Leader," the United States would have to confront Iran on its own, a job he said he was "not inclined to do." The move reversed Trump's own recent stance: earlier this month he told Time he was "not involved in [Israeli] politics anymore." The endorsement and its Iran warning were previously reported on GenZ NewZ.

Netanyahu welcomed the backing on X, thanking Trump for what he called his "extraordinary endorsement" and writing that Israel had "never had a greater friend in the White House." He added that together they would "complete the mission," according to JFeed.

The Budapest precedent

Vance has campaigned abroad before. Earlier this year he traveled to Budapest to stump for Hungary's then-prime minister Viktor Orban, who lost his reelection bid in April after sixteen years in power, having held office continuously since 2010. That history makes his refusal to weigh in on Israel's race harder to explain as a general rule against intervening in other countries' elections.

The timing sharpens the contrast. Trump tied his endorsement directly to the confrontation with Tehran, casting Netanyahu as the partner Washington needs in place. Vance declined to add his own name to that case a day later, leaving the White House's two top officials at odds on a foreign policy question with live consequences.

Halperin also asked Vance about his own future. He said he had not decided whether to run for president in 2028, adding that he believed Trump would back him "right at the beginning" if he did.

What the split changes

Israelis vote on October 27 in the country's first national election since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Polls suggest Netanyahu's governing coalition could fall short of a parliamentary majority, so the signals Washington sends around the race carry weight. Netanyahu has led Israel through the war that followed the attack and through the years since.

The split arrived alongside fresh American attention on Israel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced trip to the country on Monday, meeting Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz in the evening, according to CNN. An Israeli source familiar with the details confirmed the Monday evening meeting. The visit showed how much of Washington's agenda, from the confrontation with Iran to a stalled Gaza ceasefire, runs through Jerusalem in the campaign's final days. The ceasefire's collapse and the rising death toll were recently covered on GenZ NewZ.

Vance framed his position as a focus on American races rather than distance from Netanyahu. The two statements still do not match: one full endorsement, one refusal to give one, days before voters head to the polls. Vance's stated reason was the calendar at home: with November's midterms approaching, he said his energy is going to American races, not foreign ones.