April 5 (UPI) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will meet with President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday, and plans to discuss new tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
The prime minister’s office announced the trip Saturday night after Axios reported the plans.
Netanyahu said he will leave Sunday for Washington, and on Monday they will “discuss the tariff issue, the efforts to return our hostages, Israel-Turkey relations, the Iranian threat and the battle against the International Criminal Court,” according to the office.
On Thursday, Trump spoke on the phone with Netanyahu, who was in Hungary where he met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest. He applauded Orban for dropping out of the ICC, calling it “bold and principled.” Last May, ICC issued an arrest warrant against him and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
Netanyahu and Trump had planned to meet in late April, but decided move it up.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to Florida on Thursday 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.
“The PM appreciates the personal and warm ties with President Trump and thanks him for the invitation to be the first leader to meet with him following the imposition of global tariffs, just as he was the first leader to meet with him following his entering the White House,” the office said.
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.
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 the phone, 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.”
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.