‘Ultimate betrayal’: Trump let down by Netanyahu’s congratulations to Biden, says new book

Journalist Michael Wolff writes that Trump complained about the lack of support he received from Jewish Americans in the 2020 election.

By Josh Plank World Israel News

President Donald Trump was highly disappointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s swift congratulatory tweet to Joe Biden after the 2020 U.S. election, according to a new book authored by journalist Michael Wolff, the Forward reported Wednesday.

Trump told his aides that Netanyahu’s tweet was an “ultimate betrayal,” according to Wolff’s book, “Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency,” a copy of which was obtained by the Forward.

Netanyahu congratulated Biden approximately 12 hours after major American media networks declared him the winner. According to Wolff, Trump, who has disputed the election results ever since, told his aides that the tweet came “before the ink was dry.”

“It was startling to aides, however much they were anticipating an eruption, that Trump’s wrath fell on Bibi Netanyahu,” Wolff writes.

Netanyahu tweeted on November 8, 2020, “Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. Joe, we’ve had a long & warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel. I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the U.S. and Israel.”

Wolff offers an explanation as to why Trump felt so betrayed by Netanyahu’s words.

“As in all Trump reactions, a variety of grievances welled up here,” he writes. “There was his belief that he had singularly done more for Israel than any American president — and that therefore he was owed. And now sold out.”

Trump’s foreign policy accomplishments include moving the U.S. embassy to the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and brokering the Abraham Accords.

In his book, Wolff also writes that Trump complained about the lack of support he received from Jewish Americans in the 2020 election, the Forward reported.

Trump lumped together his disappointment with Netanyahu “with his own increasing anger at his failure to much improve his standing among Jewish voters, even with what he regarded as the quid pro quo nature of his support of Israel,” Wolff writes.

Trump told Ami magazine last month that he was “really surprised” by the lack of support he received from the Jewish community, particularly from the non-Orthodox.

“I believe we got 25% of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense. It just seems strange to me,” he said.