Less than 24 hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with the US President at the White House Tuesday, and Trump not-so-subtly put the Israeli leader in his place while fielding questions from reporters aboard Air Force One.
Trump was asked about Netanyahu's very public and long-stated opposition to Washington selling F-35s to Turkey. Trump responded by firmly stating, "Nobody tells me what we should be selling or not. Turkey has been a tremendous ally."
He added in the remarks, "Turkey’s not a big fan of Israel, not a great fan of Bibi. But they’ve been great for me." He also repeatedly praised Turkey as a great ally of the United States.
It comes after Trump strongly hinted while at the annual NATO summit in Ankara earlier this month that he would approve the F-35 sale, though it would likely invite serious Congressional pushback.
This is not going to be a welcome development for Netanyahu, especially given that with the full context of the comments, Trump was highly praising Turkey while seeming to put down Israel:
"And frankly, we're being very nice to a lot of countries that would not survive without us. You know who wouldn't survive without us? Israel...
...Turkey has been a great ally, for me. Nobody tells me what we should be selling. Turkey is not a big fan of Israel, you know that, right? And not a big fan of Bibi."
Interestingly in the same thought he admitted Turkey is a bitter enemy of Israel, but still chose to praise Turkey while quipping that Israel wouldn't be abl
