US President Donald Trump called for Israel to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or cancel his corruption trial, saying the US would save him like it did his country.
His comments set off a public storm in Israel on Thursday, with most of the Likud echoing the call, while other public figures maintained a stance of sovereign immunity, saying that the US has no business interfering in Israel’s internal affairs and that the legal process must be completed.
One particular call that arose from Netanyahu’s supporters – and those who assert that an intense war is not the appropriate time for criminal trial hearings to take place twice a week – was for President Isaac Herzog to issue Netanyahu a pardon.
However, a presidential pardon has particular conditions, one of which is a verdict. At present, the trial is set to need at least another year to even begin to get to that point, as it is still in the cross-examination section. Additionally, a request for pardon would have to come from the prime minister himself.
Herzog, in comments made back in May, called on all sides to come to the table and consider a plea deal, given that Netanyahu’s trial has ballooned out of the realm of justice and now affects too many aspects of Israeli society to ignore.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, all of which the prime minister denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Bibi Netanyahu’s trial should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State [of Israel],” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, adding that he had learned that Netanyahu was due to appear in court on Monday.
The prime minister has since requested that the hearings be put on hold for two weeks so he could focus on the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza and on the 50 hostages held in Hamas captivity there.
Israeli leaders react to Trump's comments
Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid said Trump should stay out of the matter. “With all due respect and gratitude to the president of the United States, he’s not supposed to intervene in the legal process of an independent state,” he said.
“I hope and suppose that this is a reward he [Trump] is giving him [Netanyahu] because he is planning to pressure him on Gaza and force him into a hostage deal that will end the war,” Lapid told Ynet.
Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar (Likud) said that the trial is “perhaps the worst thing that has happened to Israel in recent years” in an interview with Army Radio. Zohar later said on X/Twitter that his words were taken out of context.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) said that Trump is “absolutely right; it’s time to abolish the absurd sentence that the deep state concocted in an attempt to stage a coup against democracy,” adding that judicial reform is urgently needed. Such reforms were aggressively pushed by the government after it coalesced in 2022, bringing Israeli society to its knees. A legislative push for the reforms continued throughout the war.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) shared Trump’s post on X and wrote, “This performative display [the trial] has long cost us the security of the state. Every word!”
Knesset Constitution Committee chairman and Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman wrote that while it is not Trump’s position to intervene in Israel’s internal affairs, he called on President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu. “It is clear that Trump is right. Managing Netanyahu’s cases turns Israel’s image from a regional and global power into a banana republic.”
Trump extolled Netanyahu as a “warrior” but also said in his post: “It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu.” That appeared to be a reference to US involvement and support for Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
It was unclear if Trump meant that the US could do something to aid Netanyahu in his legal battle.
The Republican president described the case against the Israeli leader as a “witch hunt,” a term Trump has frequently applied to US attempts to prosecute him and the same term Netanyahu has used to describe his own long-running trial. Critics argue that the legal process must be seen through to the end and that no one is above the law.
The warm words toward Netanyahu contrasted with the rare rebuke Trump issued on Tuesday over Israel’s post-ceasefire strikes on Iran.
In a message to Trump, Democrats MK Gilad Kariv said, “Jewish tradition teaches us that no person is above the law, not even a prime minister. We have instilled this important principle in the laws of our Jewish-democratic state. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting the State of Israel and our security. Please continue to assist us in bringing back the hostages and ending the war in Gaza.”