Trump urges Israelis to 'vote for Bibi' in new post a day before the election

US President Donald Trump published a further message of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his social network, Truth Social, roughly a day before Israelis go to the polls. Political commentator Amit Segal reported that the post called on voters to back "Bibi", Netanyahu's widely used nickname, and said the two leaders needed to complete the mission they had begun.

The Israeli broadcaster N12, relaying journalist Barak Ravid, carried longer passages from the message. According to N12, Trump wrote that everyone, "including the enemy", knows he and Netanyahu have an excellent relationship through which they have won victories together, and that Iran now has no navy and no air force, with its army and economy in ruins. In a second excerpt reported by N12, Trump described Netanyahu as an outstanding wartime prime minister and asked Israelis to remember this when they vote.

What the message said

Across the reports, the post contains three main elements. The first is a direct appeal: Trump asked Israelis to vote for Netanyahu for prime minister. The second is a claim about Iran, which Trump presented as militarily and economically shattered. News.co.il described this as a reference to military operations against Iran and to severe harm to Iran's military and economic capabilities. The third is a line about chants heard around the world. In the N12 excerpt, Trump said the cry of "Death to America, death to Israel" can no longer be heard, and will not be heard.

The closing call, rendered in English by The Times of Israel as "We have to finish the job", was the phrase most outlets put in their headlines. The Jerusalem Post framed it as a call for Israel and the United States together to finish the job.

A new post, or a repost?

The reports do not fully agree on what Trump actually published. Most describe it as an additional or repeated endorsement. Ynet's news alerts channel, however, reported that Trump reshared his earlier post of support for Netanyahu, adding a note addressed to Israelis who had not seen it. The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post both describe Trump as doubling down on or repeating support he had already expressed. Whether the text was entirely new, a repost with an added line, or some combination of the two is not settled by the material available.

A reported request from Netanyahu

The Times of Israel reported that the post followed a request from Netanyahu for another expression of support. The outlet attributed this to reporting rather than confirming it, and none of the other organisations mention such a request. It remains a claim carried by a single outlet.

Context for readers outside Israel

Netanyahu is chairman of the Likud party. In Israeli general elections, voters choose party lists for the Knesset, the country's parliament, rather than voting for a prime minister directly; the prime minister is the figure able to form a governing coalition afterwards. An appeal to "vote for Bibi" is therefore in practice an appeal to vote for Likud.

Trump's support has been a visible part of Netanyahu's campaign. A photograph published by The Jerusalem Post, dated October 25, 2026, shows an election poster featuring Netanyahu alongside Trump on the back of a bus in Jerusalem. Truth Social is the platform Trump uses for many of his public statements, and in this case Hebrew-language alerts about the post appeared on Israeli news Telegram channels almost simultaneously.

Trump's language ties his own record to Netanyahu's, presenting the confrontation with Iran as a shared achievement and an unfinished one.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports quote a response from Netanyahu, Likud, or rival parties to the post.
• The reports do not reproduce the full text of the message, only excerpts, so it is unclear whether other passages exist.
• The request said to have come from Netanyahu is not described in detail: who made it, how, or when is not stated.
• The reports do not specify which military operations against Iran Trump was referring to, and his claims about Iran's navy, air force, army and economy are his own assertions, not independently assessed in the material.
• No outlet reports any reaction from the White House beyond the post itself.