Vice President JD Vance declined Monday to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a day after President Trump gave him a complete and total endorsement for re-election.
In an interview on Mark Halperin’s show “2WAY Tonight,” Vance said he is staying out of Israel’s election contest even as President Donald Trump put his full weight behind the Israeli leader. NBC News reported the remarks one day after Trump’s public endorsement.
Netanyahu is seeking re-election this month. Trump called him the only acceptable choice. Vance refused to join that call and said his focus is American races.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Israel needs the right leader and that anyone other than Netanyahu would leave America to carry the load alone.
Trump did not hedge.
“If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so.”
He praised Netanyahu’s record in blunt terms and labeled the post a full-throated seal of approval.
“Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself.”
Trump added that the message was his “Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu.” The timing landed just days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration was “very disturbed” by images from an attack that left American journalist Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photographer, among the injured and still in the hospital. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee later welcomed the arrest of 10 suspects and called the assault a “despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards.” Netanyahu cast doubt on the episode, calling it “alleged.”
Monday, Vance would not match the president’s move. He told Halperin’s audience he is not entering the Israeli race at all.
“I’m not getting involved in the Israeli elections.”
He cleaned up the edges so no one could spin the refusal as a hit job.
“I’m not anti-endorsing him; I’m not pro-endorsing him.”
Vance still called Trump’s blessing unmatched. He said the president holds “the most effective endorsement in American or international political history.” He simply would not add his own name to it.
Asked to explain the holdout, Vance pointed home. He said he endorses “American candidates” and that “that’s what I’m focused on” as the midterm elections approach.
That is a clean America-first frame. It also leaves daylight between the vice president and a president who just tied U.S. interests to Netanyahu’s survival at the ballot box.
Vance has taken a cooler line on Israel than many on the right before. In June he warned Israeli officials not to undercut American efforts to end their joint war with Iran, and he framed Trump as uniquely valuable to the Jewish state.
“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”
He added a sharper note aimed at Israeli critics of U.S. policy:
“If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”
The foreign-endorsement ban is not absolute in Vance’s record. In April he traveled to Hungary to stump for then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán later lost power after 16 years. So Vance has crossed borders for a preferred leader before. He is choosing not to do it for Netanyahu now.
Public mood in the United States has also shifted. Pew Research Center polling conducted in May found favorable views of the Israeli government fell from 47% in 2022 to 32% in 2026. That slide forms part of the backdrop for any American politician weighing how loud to get in Israel’s contest.
Vance used the same interview to keep his own future loose. He said he has not decided whether to run for president in 2028 and has not focused on it.
“I really have not made up my mind about what to do in 2028. I just haven’t focused on it.”
He still projected confidence about Trump’s loyalty if he does jump in.
“I think if I run, the president will endorse me right away, right at the beginning.”
Trump just showed what a full-throated foreign endorsement looks like. Vance showed what sitting one out looks like. One man put a clear marker on Israel’s leadership. The other kept his powder for American ballots. In a season of midterms and hard choices about allies, that difference is now on the record.
