What happens when Netanyahu visits Trump? A look at his past visits 

Washington, DC – No other world leader has visited the United States in an official capacity over the past year more than Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

And the Israeli prime minister is set to break his own record when he embarks on yet another trip to the US this week – his sixth since President Donald Trump returned to the White House early in 2025.

The visit comes at a tense moment for the region.

Israel is tightening its illegal grip over the occupied West Bank; the bombardment and siege of Gaza are continuing despite a US-brokered “ceasefire”; and US and Iranian officials are holding indirect talks to stave off a war that appeared imminent a few weeks ago.

The Iran file is expected to top Netanyahu’s agenda in Washington, DC, as he pushes for a hardline US approach towards Tehran.

Here, we look back at Netanyahu’s previous visits to see Trump and their outcomes.

February 2025: Reaffirming alliance

Almost exactly a year ago, Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to visit Trump after the start of the US president’s second term in office.

The trip aimed to reaffirm the US-Israeli alliance and Netanyahu’s own strong ties to Trump, who had moved Washington’s policy further in favour of Israel during his first term.

“You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” Netanyahu told Trump at that time.

A Gaza truce that had begun in January 2025 was in effect.

But the US president revealed during that visit a proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza and turn the Palestinian territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, sparking international condemnation.

With that Trump plan, which was vehemently opposed by Arab countries, the ceasefire collapsed, and Israel resumed its genocidal war in Gaza in full force weeks after Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, DC.

It wasn’t long before Netanyahu returned to the White House, this time shortly after Trump had spiked US tariffs on goods from countries across the world, including Israel.

The Israeli prime minister had announced measures to boost trade with the US in a push to get a tariff exemption for his country.

But the move did not work. “Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” Trump said in the Oval Office next to Netanyahu when asked about tariff relief for Israel. “We give Israel $4bn a year. That’s a lot.”

The other top issue on Netanyahu’s agenda was Iran. The Israeli prime minister had been seeking escalation against Tehran.

But instead of a move towards war, Trump announced at the meeting with Netanyahu that the US and Iran would hold nuclear talks, reiterating his preference for a deal with Iran.

“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious,” Trump said at that time.

Netanyahu responded by setting out maximalist conditions for US diplomacy with Iran – a complete disarmament of heavy weapons akin to the 2003 Libyan model.

“If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing,” Netanyahu said. “But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”

Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear weapons while Israel is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Despite signs of disagreement between Trump and Netanyahu over Iran and trade at that time, the US administration continued to support and fund Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.

July: Victory lap

Although Trump and Netanyahu did not appear on the same page when it came to Iran weeks earlier, the US joined Israel in bombing Iran in June, hitting three of its key nuclear sites and fulfilling a wish that the Israeli prime minister had been seeking for years.

Netanyahu visited the White House a month later to hail the war and its outcomes, which Trump said “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.

“I think the partnership between Israel and the United States, the partnership between President Trump and me, produced a historic victory. It’s an incredible victory, actually,” Netanyahu said.

“It brought the greatest capabilities of the United States – that are unmatched – with the great capabilities of Israel and the army of Israel, the pilots of Israel, the soldiers of Israel and the Mossad.”

Netanyahu met with Trump on two occasions during that visit as the US was pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza amid international outrage at Israel’s atrocities and a forced starvation campaign against Palestinians.

Some media reports had suggested at the time that Trump may pressure Netanyahu to stop the war, but the Israeli prime minister stressed that he and the US president were in “lockstep” over Gaza.

“President Trump wants a deal, but not at any price,” Netanyahu said. “I want a deal, but not at any price. Israel has security requirements and other requirements, and we’re working together to try to achieve it.”

September: The ‘ceasefire’

After a United Nations General Assembly that saw much of the world express outrage at the horrors unfolding in Gaza, Netanyahu travelled to Washington, DC, to meet with Trump for the fourth time in eight months.

Trump had put forward a 20-point plan that would become the basis for the current Gaza “ceasefire”.

With the visit, the US president sought buy-in from Netanyahu for his plan, which he hailed as a new dawn for the region and the world.

“This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilisation,” Trump said during a news conference with Netanyahu.

“And I’m not just talking about Gaza. Gaza is one thing, but we’re talking about much beyond Gaza. The whole deal, everything getting solved. It’s called peace in the Middle East.”

While Netanyahu said he accepted the Trump proposal, he did so with caveats.

“Israel will retain security responsibility, including a security perimeter, for the foreseeable future,” Netanyahu said.

“Gaza will have a peaceful civilian administration that is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority but by those committed to a genuine peace with Israel.”

The truce would go into effect days later, but more than four months on, Israel has continued to bomb and kill Palestinians in Gaza while restricting the entry of medicine and material for temporary shelters into the territory.

December: Iran again

Netanyahu had proclaimed in July that the joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran set back the country’s nuclear and missile programmes, which he called “two tumours”. Still, the prime minister returned to the US at the end of the year to raise concerns about the same issues.

Even before the two leaders met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump threatened Iran with more bombs.

“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump said. “We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully, that’s not happening.”

From there, Trump and Netanyahu heaped praise on one another, dismissing media reports that they were not seeing eye to eye on the future of Gaza and other regional issues.

Trump called Netanyahu a “hero”, arguing that Israel may not have existed without his leadership.

“We’re with you, and we’ll continue to be with you, and a lot of good things are happening in the Middle East,” Trump told Netanyahu.

For his part, the prime minister announced that his country would award Trump the Israel Prize, which is normally given to Israeli citizens.

“I have to say that this reflects the overwhelming sentiment of Israelis across the spectrum,” Netanyahu said.

Days after that meeting, antigovernment protests broke out in Iran, leading Trump to threaten to intervene militarily as he promised demonstrators who faced a security crackdown that “help is on the way”.

That threat never materialised.

With the protest movement in Iran all but faded and renewed US-Iranian diplomacy under way, the Israeli prime minister is likely to lobby for greater pressure on Tehran as he returns to Washington, DC, this week.

What remains to be seen is how the US president – who, like his predecessors has shown reluctance to say “no” to Israeli demands – will respond.