
SCOOP: "Zero daylight": Trump-Netanyahu bromance takes D.C. by storm
THE LOWDOWN:
For the third time in six months, Netanyahu returned to D.C. for multiple meetings with Trump himself, and with leading members of Congress of both parties.
The mood was pure jubilation, including at a highly-exclusive reception the prime minister hosted at Blair House that the Washington Reporter attended.
During his remarks, Netanyahu emphasized his alignment with Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine, which recently included the devastation of Iran’s nuclear facilities with zero American casualties.
Those at the reception included Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Ambassador Mike Huckabee, DOJ civil rights senior counsel Leo Terrell, Sens. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) and James Lankford (R., Okla.), Reps. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), Mike Haridopolos (R., Fla.), and Randy Fine (R., Fla.), among others.
The bromance between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is as strong as ever.
For the third time in six months, Netanyahu returned to D.C. for multiple meetings with Trump himself, and with leading members of Congress of both parties.
The mood was pure jubilation, including at a highly-exclusive reception the prime minister hosted at Blair House that the Washington Reporter attended. Those at the reception included Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Ambassador Mike Huckabee, DOJ civil rights senior counsel Leo Terrell, Sens. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) and James Lankford (R., Okla.), Reps. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), Mike Haridopolos (R., Fla.), and Randy Fine (R., Fla.), among others.
During his remarks, Netanyahu emphasized his alignment with Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine, which recently included the devastation of Iran’s nuclear facilities with zero American casualties. First came strength, now can come peace, Netanyahu said in remarks that Haridopolos echoed in comments to the Reporter.
Throughout the evening, Netanyahu was joined on stage by longtime friends and newfound allies, including Pastor Paula White-Cain and General Erik Kurilla, who received a map of Israel made from a missile fragment from Netanyahu.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is the leader Israel needs right now, and the partner for peace who President Trump has been looking for,” Issa told the Reporter. Issa proudly displays a photo with Netanyahu in his office that was taken almost 20 years ago. The two leaders met when Issa had just started in Congress, and Issa has with Netanyahu numerous times.
Lankford added to the Reporter that “Israel is in the fight for its survival, and America stands with her. I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu just a few weeks ago during my visit to Israel, and his visit to Washington shows our alliance is as strong as ever. The Jewish state has no greater friend than the United States.”
Netanyahu’s trip follows a series of unprecedented joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that both American and Israeli intelligence estimate have set back Iran’s missile program by years at minimum.
Despite reports of tension between the White House and Jerusalem, Trump has backed Netanyahu at critical junctures — both foreign and domestic — in recent weeks. In addition to the Iran strikes on key components of Iran’s nuclear program, Trump even went so far as to demand that Israel’s activist court stop prosecuting Netanyahu.
“It is INSANITY doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Both leaders have spent years tussling with the deep states of their respective countries — another subject that the two have bonded over over the years.
Netanyahu, for his part, even donned a hat that read “Trump was right about everything!”
Others spotted at the Blair House event included Mark Levin, Elan Carr, Mort Klein, Bonnie Glick, Paul Foldi, David Milstein, and families of hostages who were — and in some cases still remain — in Gaza.
One of them, Ayelet Samerano, recently saw her son’s body returned to Israel. Her son, Yonatan Samerano, was murdered on October 7th and his body was taken hostage and held in Gaza for almost two years.
Allies of both leaders stressed the importance of Netanyahu’s latest visit.
“This visit by PM Netanyahu reinforced and showed to the world the historic and unprecedented partnership between the U.S. and Israel,” Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), said. “President Trump deserves much credit for moving America beyond the Biden/Harris policy of daylight and pressure on Israel to one where we are now in which there is zero daylight and total partnership between the two countries.”
Joining Israel’s leader on his trip were key allies, including Caroline Glick, his International Affairs Advisor.
Glick’s presence in particular during key meetings helped move the needle on a series of issues, congressional sources told the Reporter — in part due to her years of work as a journalist.
Republicans in particular consumed her columns for years prior to her new role. “Caroline Glick was a lone, breakthrough voice in predicting what would happen in the Middle East and is an incredible asset in locking into place the diplomatic and policy choices that Israel and the United States are forging every day,” a Hill veteran told the Reporter.