US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff boasted Wednesday night that Donald Trump could handle both being US president and Israeli prime minister at the same time as he talked up his boss’s support for the Jewish state.
Witkoff, who is navigating high-stakes nuclear talks with Iran as well as efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, also said the US and Israel should work together to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear arms “no matter the cost.”
Speaking at a fundraising gala in New York for Jewish emergency rescue group United Hatzalah, Witkoff noted that he had spoken earlier in the day with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“He’s such a special man, he’s an incredible friend to the Jewish people,” Witkoff said of Trump. “No disrespect to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who I actually spoke to today, but I think President Trump could be the first sitting president who could be prime minister of Israel at the same time.”
The quip drew chuckles and some applause from the Trump-friendly audience, which gave Witkoff a standing ovation at an earlier mention of the US leader.
Trump’s leadership, he said, has been “unwavering in defending Israel’s right to exist and thrive.”
On Wednesday, a Pew poll showed 69% of Israelis had confidence in Trump’s foreign policies, the second highest of 24 countries surveyed. The survey also showed that Israelis views of the US had risen by six points over last year, one of only a handful of countries that saw ratings rise.
In 2022, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he “could easily be P.M.” of Israel, noting his high approval rating in the Jewish state, while panning American Jews for failing to show him the same kind of support.
He made a similar claim while president in 2019, claiming falsely that his approval rating in Israel was 98 percent. (It was actually 69% at the time, according to JTA.)
“If anything happens here, I’m taking a trip over to Israel. I’ll be prime minister,” he joked then, while expressing confusion over Israel’s messy parliamentary system of government.
Witkoff’s comments came as Netanyahu narrowly staved off a threat to his rule posed by ultra-Orthodox coalition parties, who have said they could bring down the government and force new elections as they protest the lack of movement on legislation meant to regulate Haredi military draft exemptions.
Witkoff, who is set to meet meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oman on Sunday for a sixth round of nuclear talks, despite increasing tensions over the possibility of an Israeli military strike, also told the gala that the Islamic Republic “must never be permitted to enrich uranium or develop any nuclear capability,” drawing another standing ovation from the participants.
“A nuclear Iran represents an existential threat to Israel, as does an Iran with a large amount of missiles,” he said. “That is as big an existential threat as the nuclear threat.”
It is, he continued, an “existential threat to the United States, the free world and the entire [Gulf Cooperation Council].”
He urged unity in ensuring that Iran “never achieves its deadly ambitions no matter what the cost.”
His remarks came as Trump expressed pessimism about the talks, which have become stuck on the issue of uranium enrichment. While the US is demanding Iran stop all enrichment, Tehran is insisting it has the right to continue. Trump has threatened military action if the talks fail, while Iran has warned it could hit US bases in the Middle East if attacked.
Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen as well as former hostages Eli Sharabi and Noa Argaman were among those at the New York gala event, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
Argaman, whose partner Avinatan Or is still a hostage, thanked Witkoff for his efforts on behalf of the captives.
“I am convinced that you will fight for each hostage until the last of the hostages is freed,” she said, according to the Israeli report.
The hostages were among 251 abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. There are 53 hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip, fewer than half of them believed still alive.
Hostage release-ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been at an impasse since the terror group’s response in late May to Witkoff’s proposal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal, which he termed “unacceptable.”
On Monday, Netanyahu claimed “significant progress” in hostage talks with Hamas, though an Arab official familiar with the hostage negotiations rejected the assertion.