Trump 'Ghosts' Netanyahu: Booked Tickets, Left Hanging

A number of White House officials were reportedly surprised when reading recent Israeli media reports claiming that President Donald Trump would host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. In reality, no meeting agenda had ever been scheduled between the two leaders. Citing an Axios report on Friday (17/7/2026), this diplomatic rift surfaced after Netanyahu aggressively tried to secure an official schedule for more than two weeks. Netanyahu had previously visited the Oval Office six times since Trump returned to office a year and a half ago, making him the world leader who has met Trump most often, with each previous meeting successfully scheduled within hours or days. Trump’s reluctance to rush into a photo opportunity with Netanyahu signals a sharp divergence in interests between the two and reflects the White House’s deep disappointment with the Israeli leader, five months after the two nations jointly launched a war operation. Earlier this month, Trump stated that Netanyahu had called to congratulate him on the 250th US Independence Day and requested permission to visit the White House. Trump hinted the visit could occur right after his return from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, which took place on 7-8 July. However, as time passed and Trump returned from the summit, confirmation of the meeting never materialised. The uncertainty worsened following news of the death of former Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday. Netanyahu’s office immediately announced to the media that the Prime Minister intended to attend the funeral and planned to fly to the US over the weekend to meet Trump on Monday. The air force was even ordered to prepare the presidential aircraft, complete with an advance security protocol team sent to Washington. Yet, suddenly on Thursday morning, Netanyahu’s office announced the total cancellation of the trip, citing the postponement of Graham’s funeral. White House officials revealed the cancellation occurred because confirmation of a meeting from Trump’s side had never existed. ‘Our impression is that Bibi was trying to force the meeting to happen,’ one White House official said. Behind the scenes, some Israeli officials assessed that Netanyahu’s decision to cancel the trip was also driven by tactical military calculations. He suspected the US was preparing to intensify attacks on Iran, prompting him to remain in the country to anticipate potential direct Iranian retaliation against Israel. Tensions between the two allies were also fuelled by Netanyahu’s appearance on Fox News just before Trump departed for Ankara, where he openly criticised the President’s intention to sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey. The interview reportedly infuriated Trump, who felt Netanyahu had no right to interfere in US foreign policy. During Trump’s visit to Turkey, Israel presented intelligence data claiming that senior Iranian officials had ordered an associate to assassinate the President while he was in Ankara. This data prompted the Secret Service to tighten security and switch Trump’s aircraft to an older version of Air Force One. However, several US officials later stated that the intelligence was single-sourced and uncorroborated. ‘It was more aspirational than operational,’ one US official remarked. Turkish security agencies, after conducting an in-depth field investigation, ultimately concluded there was no specific assassination plot directed at Trump during his stay in Ankara. This intelligence incident further tarnished Netanyahu’s image, making him highly unpopular in Washington among both Democrats and Trump’s inner circle and MAGA supporters. Many senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have accused Netanyahu of frequently making overly optimistic and inaccurate predictions about the course of the Iran war that do not match realities on the ground. A tangible form of political rejection was seen on Wednesday when 103 members of the Democratic faction in the US House of Representatives surprisingly voted to cut $3 billion in aid to Israel. This budget cut serves as a sharp rebuke demonstrating massive opposition to Netanyahu’s government. Pressure is not only coming from the opposition, as on the same day, Vice President JD Vance, speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast, explicitly accused members of Netanyahu’s administration of deliberately undermining Trump’s Iran policy to prolong the war.