Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet former President Donald Trump at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Friday, according to two announcements by Trump on the Truth Social media platform.
The meeting marks a thaw in the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump, after several years in which Trump resented Netanyahu for congratulating President Joe Biden for his election win in 2020. The two worked together well during Trump’s tenure in the White House; Trump referred to Netanyahu by his nickname, “Bibi,” in his posts.
At the same time, Netanyahu’s office revealed that he would meet with Biden at the White House at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Their meeting Tuesday was rescheduled from Tuesday, due to Biden’s bout with the coronavirus.
Breitbart News reported Monday that Netanyahu will also meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president since Biden’s withdrawal on Sunday — though the date for the meeting has not been set.
Harris declined to preside over the special joint session of Congress at which Netanyahu will speak on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. EDT. She cited scheduling conflicts, but the likelier reasons were that she fears the anti-Israel left wing of her party, and may fear that Netanyahu might devote some of his remarks to criticizing administration policy on Israel.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump came after Netanyahu made extensive schedule adjustments: because the leader of the Israeli government prefers not to travel on the Jewish Sabbath, a Friday meeting means that he will have to stay in the U.S. longer than planned, and cannot leave until Saturday evening.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
