April 5 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to meet with President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday, and will likely discuss new tariffs on U.S. trading partners, according to reports.
The White House has not confirmed the trip.
Axios reported the two leaders also likely would discuss the war in Gaza and the Iran nuclear crisis, according to a White House source. Israel’s Channel 12 and the Kan public broadcaster confirmed the meeting, as did The New York Times and NewsNation.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to Florida that Netanyahu “may very well be coming next week.” Trump has been at his Mar-a-Lago estate and attended a LIV Golf dinner in Miami on Friday.
It would be Netanyahu’s second visit since Trump re-took office. They met on Feb. 4 in the White House after Israel and Hamas signed a cease-fire and hostage release deal on Jan. 19, one day before Trump was inaugurated.
The meeting was Trump’s first time hosting a head of state during his second presidency.
Netanyahu also met twice with former President Joe Biden after the war with Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023.
During Trump’s first term, he visited Israel in May 2017, and Netanyahu traveled to the White House in February 2017, March 2018, March 2019 and January 2020.
On Thursday, Trump spoke on the phone with Netanyahu, who was in Hungary where he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest.
Netanyahu talked about Trump’s new tariffs, which include a 17% one on goods, based on a trade deficit. Most of the 180 nations the president extended tariffs to were hit with a baseline 10% increase, although roughly 60 “worst offenders” received higher rates.
Netanyahu canceled all tariffs on products from the U.S., which is Israel’s largest trading partner. In 2024, Israel’s exports to the U.S. were worth around $22 billion, including diamonds, machinery, electronics and pharmaceuticals.
“Cancelling the customs duties on American goods is an additional step in the policy that my governments have led for a decade in opening up the market to competition, introducing variety to the economy and lowering the cost of living,” Netanyahu wrote in a Tuesday post on X.
“In addition to the advantages to the market and to citizens of Israel, the current effort will allow us to further strengthen the alliance and ties between Israel and the U.S.”
Netanyahu and Trump had planned to meet in late April, but decided move it up.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with Netanyahu to “underscore U.S. support for Israel,” according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Friday.
Negotiations are ongoing about a cease-fire and hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. The first agreement was from Jan. 19 to March 1. In the absence of an extension to that agreement, Israel has resumed raids in Gaza in recent weeks.
Twenty-seven people were killed and another 70 others injured in an airstrike on the Al-Arqam School in northern Gaza on Thursday. Families were sheltering at the school, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry.
