Why Trump Rushed to Bring Netanyahu to Washington?

Watan-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly surprised by a phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump while Netanyahu was visiting the Hungarian capital. In the call, Trump asked him to come to Washington. Just hours later, Trump told reporters that Netanyahu would visit him “during the coming week.”

The surprise stemmed from the fact that Israeli officials had expected the visit to take place later in the month or during the Jewish Passover holiday, which begins on April 14.

To comply with the sudden request, Netanyahu had to ask the judges overseeing his corruption trial to cancel scheduled hearings. He then headed to the airport to fulfill the urgent invitation to the White House.

Netanyahu had visited Trump on February 4 and was the first foreign leader to meet with him since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025. The visit came two months after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

This wasn’t a legal obstacle in the U.S., which does not recognize the ICC—unlike Hungary, which sidestepped the issue by announcing its intention to withdraw from the court.

That first visit reflected the special favor Netanyahu and Israel enjoy with Trump and the United States. It also helped Netanyahu resolve internal political crises, as members of the far-right in his government were threatening to bring it down. Netanyahu came armed with a plan to resume the war on Gaza once the first phase of the ceasefire agreement ended.

In today’s visit as well, Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House following Trump’s announcement of tariff wars against 180 countries. Some media speculated that tariffs might be one of the issues discussed, especially after Netanyahu raised the topic in hopes of leveraging Israel’s favored status to secure exemptions. However, this is unlikely to be the real reason behind the urgency—it’s hard to imagine Trump summoning Netanyahu over a matter so trivial from his perspective (!).

Netanyahu’s first visit to Trump covered the Iran file, the Gaza war (and efforts to release Israeli hostages), and those two topics are expected to be at the top of today’s agenda as well. Two other related issues are also likely to be discussed: Trump’s upcoming visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar (and possibly the UAE, as Trump mentioned), and Israel’s attacks on Syria (and Lebanon), which carry the risk of sparking a confrontation with Turkey—whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has postponed two planned visits to Washington.

Trump’s brash promises to end the Russia-Ukraine war in days have crumbled dramatically. Meanwhile, the war on Gaza continues at an unprecedented pace of extermination. On top of that, the U.S. has gradually become involved in bombing and destroying Yemen, is deploying fleets, and reinforcing its bases in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean—raising the likelihood of war with Iran.

Additionally, Trump’s administration now faces a massive economic storm after the tariff announcement, with early signs of impact already showing in the U.S. economy—putting Republican prospects in next year’s midterm elections at risk.

The intersection of unraveling war scenarios and global economic turmoil is unfolding on Trump’s screens—alongside Israel’s deepening aggression in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. Trump’s urgency in summoning Netanyahu suggests two possible options:

1. An attempt to limit anticipated American losses by crafting a temporary settlement—potentially involving Gulf states—that halts the genocide in Gaza, releases some Israeli captives, and reins in Israeli aggression against Syria and Lebanon.

2. Or, a decision to escalate U.S.-Israeli military domination, discarding all settlement options, leading to full-scale war with Iran, intensifying strikes on Syria and Lebanon, and worsening tensions with Turkey.