Trump says Netanyahu won’t be arrested when he visits the US

The dispute follows remarks by Mamdani, who said he was consulting legal experts to determine whether Netanyahu could be arrested during his visit to the US.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

US President Donald Trump said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be arrested during a planned visit to the United States in September, rejecting suggestions raised by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani following discussions about whether legal action could be taken against the Israeli leader.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump declared, “Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America. He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protesters, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others.”

Trump added, “The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!”

The dispute follows remarks by Mamdani, who said he was consulting legal experts to determine whether Netanyahu could be arrested during a visit to the United States.

Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes connected to the Gaza conflict.

Speaking on “The Interview,” a New York Times program hosted by Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Mamdani said, “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court.”

Mamdani said any action would depend on existing legal authority. “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end,” he said.

In a post on X on Sunday, Netanyahu accused Mamdani of raising the issue to divert attention from his own record as mayor of New York.

“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Netanyahu’s statement said the arrest warrant was issued by former ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan shortly before allegations of sexual misconduct against him became public and characterized the move as an attempt to divert scrutiny.

The statement said Israel had taken unprecedented wartime measures to reduce civilian harm while fighting Hamas, which it called “a genocidal terrorist organization that uses Palestinians as human shields and deliberately targets innocent Israeli civilians.”

“Instead of backing Khan’s criminal behavior, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York,” the statement said. “Like Karim Khan, Mamdani appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”