From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Trump: I haven’t thought about pushing for Netanyahu-led unity government, I’ll ‘take a look’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Donald Trump says he’ll “take a look” at getting involved in efforts to form a unity government in Israel headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Asked about such a scenario during an interview with the Axios news site, Trump claims he hadn’t thought about the idea.
“I will take a look,” he says.
Netanyahu’s main rivals — Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot, B’Yachad chief Naftali Bennett, Joint List chief Yousef Jabareen, Democrats chief Yair Golan and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman — ruled out such collaboration during the campaign.
Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas has also indicated that he would not join a Netanyahu-led government due to the current coalition’s treatment of the Arab minority, though he said last night that he’s been in talks with members of the pro-Netanyahu bloc in recent days.
With most of the votes counted, Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to receive roughly 53 seats, with the remaining 67 going to opposition parties. However, that latter group includes 19 seats representing Arab parties, who have been ruled out as political partners by key members of the Jewish-led anti-Netanyahu bloc.
Trump says he received initial “horror reports” reports about Netanyahu’s prospects in yesterday’s election but that the premier is “in pretty good shape now.”
“I heard my endorsement made a big difference for Bibi,” Trump adds.
The Times of Israel Community.