Trump says Israeli PM Netanyahu will visit US next week

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, the Israeli leader's office said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House as tensions over Iran strain their alliance. [GETTY] President Donald Trump said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the US next week. Trump's comments came in his speech at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Friday, while he was falsely casting US Senator Chuck Schumer as Palestinian. "I am going to send him (Schumer) a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow, so he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week," Trump said. "He turned Palestinian," Trump said of Schumer, who is Jewish, while also joking that sharia law was Schumer's "new founding." US Muslim and Jewish advocacy groups have previously criticized Trump for calling Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, a Palestinian, with the rights groups saying Trump uses the term disrespectfully as a slur and as an insult. Netanyahu's office said earlier that he ​will travel ​to Washington on ⁠Monday and ​will meet ​with Trump on ​Tuesday. Netanyahu will also attend deceased US ​Senator ​Lindsey ⁠Graham's funeral, his ​office said. The Trump-Netanyahu meeting will come as the US-Israeli war on Iran completes five months. But this visit comes at a time when disagreements between them over the handling of the war with Iran have occasionally spilled into public view. Netanyahu has often described Trump as "the greatest friend" Israel ever had in the White House. But their alliance has shown signs of strain in recent months, particularly over whether to keep up military pressure on Iran or seek a diplomatic solution. "We get along very good. (Netanyahu) knows who the boss is," Trump said earlier this month in a phone interview with Axios, referring to himself. Relations between the two leaders reached a low point in April during negotiations on an initial US-Iran ceasefire -- which has since collapsed -- with Trump unleashing profanity-laced tirades against his Israeli ally. 'Very difficult guy' Trump had been seeking to wind down hostilities in Lebanon, where Israel's continued military campaign against Hezbollah was proving an obstacle to the Iran talks. But hours before the ceasefire deal was signed, Netanyahu launched fresh attacks, provoking broadsides from Trump in the press. "Are you f-ing crazy? What are you f-ing doing? I helped you stay out of jail," Trump said he told Netanyahu during a tense exchange, according to an interview with the New York Post. Trump later described Netanyahu as a "very difficult guy" in another interview. Netanyahu downplayed the exchanges as "tactical disagreements", saying they both were aligned on the goals of disarming Hezbollah and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. "We can disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action," he added. Netanyahu's visit comes months before Israeli national elections in which he plans to seek another term. Recent polls show Netanyahu trailing, with public anger still lingering over his government's failure to prevent Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war. Related Articles