Vance refuses to endorse Netanyahu as Trump offers praise

U.S. Vice President JD Vance declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after President Donald Trump offered his backing for the leader’s reelection bid next week.

“The president has the most effective endorsement in American or international political history,” Vance said in an interview on Mark Halperin’s 2WAY Tonight published Monday. “I endorse American candidates, and that’s where I’m focused on in the midterms,” he said.

Vance said he was not criticizing Netanyahu: “I’m not anti-endorsing him. I’m not pro-endorsing him,” he said, adding that “I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections.”

Those remarks diverge from the approach by President Donald Trump, who gave the Israeli prime minister his backing in the election next week.

Trump on Sunday praised Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, on Truth Social as “a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combating the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In a social media post, Netanyahu thanked Trump for his “tremendous support and work together.”

Vance has weighed in on foreign politics before. He campaigned in Budapest in April to publicly endorse then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s reelection bid. Orban was later voted out after 16 years in power. Last year in Munich for a security conference, Vance met Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, which Elon Musk was also boosting at the time.

The Israeli vote next week will be the first national election since Hamas attacked Israel in late 2023.

The comments also come as U.S. public support for Israel, historically strong among both Republicans and Democrats, has fallen sharply. There has also been vigorous debate in America about the Netanyahu-led government’s response to the Hamas attack.

In June, Vance said that Israel has almost no friends left in the world and should think hard before turning on the one it has.