U.S. Vice President JD Vance. (Image: Emily J. Higgins / Wikimedia Commons — Public domain)
Vice President JD Vance on Monday declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reelection bid, publicly breaking with President Donald Trump just days before Israelis vote in a pivotal parliamentary election.
"I endorse American candidates, and that's where I'm focused on is the midterm," Vance said in an interview with journalist Mark Halperin aboard Air Force Two. "I'm not getting involved in Israeli elections."
Pressed further, Vance said he was taking no position at all: "I'm not anti-endorsing him. I'm not pro-endorsing him. I'm not getting involved in Israeli elections."
The refusal stands in sharp contrast to Trump's full-throated backing. Over the weekend, Trump gave Netanyahu his "Complete and Total Endorsement," calling him a "Great Warrior Prime Minister" and a partner in confronting Iran, and posting: "BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" Netanyahu thanked Trump on X, writing: "Together we will complete the mission!"
Vance's stance is also notable given his own record of intervening in foreign elections: he traveled to Budapest in April to campaign for then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who went on to lose his reelection bid.
Israelis vote on October 27 in the country's first national election since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack and the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. Polls suggest Netanyahu's religious-nationalist coalition could fall short of a parliamentary majority, though opposition parties may also struggle to assemble a government.
Vance's comments came as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, meeting with Netanyahu — reportedly at Ovda Air Base in southern Israel, according to Axios, citing two sources familiar with the trip. Reuters said it could not independently confirm the visit, and neither the Pentagon nor Israel's embassy in Washington immediately commented.
According to Axios, the visit comes amid U.S.-Israeli discussions about potentially resuming major combat operations against Iran — a dramatic backdrop for an election in which Netanyahu is presenting himself as the leader who can finish the confrontation with Tehran. Trump himself tied the two together, warning that without Netanyahu in office, the United States might have to finish the fight against Iran on its own.
The split puts the vice president at arm's length from the president's highest-profile foreign endorsement of the cycle, with both the U.S. midterms on November 3 and Israel's election eight days earlier now less than two weeks away.