Trump warns major Jewish donor " “My people (voter base) are starting to hate Israel,”

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Has Gaza tested the limits of Donald Trump’s support for Benjamin Netanyahu??
President’s backing wavers in face of harrowing images of starvation and unease among parts of his base


Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Donald Trump as ‘the greatest friend Israel has ever had’ © FT Montage/EPA/Getty Images

Abigail Hauslohner in Washington
PublishedJULY 30 2025

In a few words, US President Donald Trump this week suggested that one of Washington’s closest allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was lying.

There was “real starvation” under way in Gaza, Trump told reporters in Scotland on Monday, a day after Netanyahu had called such reports “a boldfaced lie”.

Trump said he had seen the images of hungry Palestinians on television and on Tuesday declared that a person would have to be “pretty cold hearted” or “nuts” not to find them terrible.

It was a rare rebuke from a US president who has placed few limitations on the behaviour of Washington’s biggest foreign aid beneficiary — and whom Netanyahu has praised as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had”.

But Trump’s comments, amid mounting international condemnation of Israel, hinted at the existence of some unspoken limits to that relationship, say analysts and people close to the administration.

Trump has given Netanyahu near carte blanche to use his country’s powers as he sees fit in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel. But the president’s own ambitions for the region — combined with domestic political considerations and the competing influences of those around him — have created potential flashpoints.

A Palestinian woman carries a bowl with food she received from a charity kitchen
A Palestinian woman carries a bowl of food she received from a charity kitchen © Khamis Al-Rifi/Reuters

A small but vocal contingent of his Maga base, including younger Republicans and far-right podcasters, have grown sceptical of Washington’s relationship with Israel.

“What is this unique, strange, disgusting, perverse relationship that we seem to have with Israel?” Candace Owens, a popular podcaster and frequent proponent of antisemitic conspiracy theories, said on her programme last week.

Pro-Trump firebrand lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday described the crisis in Gaza as a “genocide” and has proposed legislation to block aid to Israel. Congress rejected the measure, but polls suggest many young Republicans now have a negative opinion of Netanyahu.

“My people are starting to hate Israel,” Trump recently warned one prominent Jewish donor, according to a Middle East expert who speaks regularly with the administration.
Analysts caution against overstating the impact of critics on the far right.

“Will there ever be a blow-up with Israel and Trump?” said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I don’t think so. But there are people in the White House who are watching this narrative develop in the right wing, in the Maga world, that is very anti-Israel, very anti-Jewish.”

Jon Hoffman, a Middle East analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, believes Israeli government officials “see the writing on the wall” and recognise that the relative blank cheque extended by this administration might not carry into the next — or even beyond the 2026 US midterm elections.

Candace Owens
‘What is this unique, strange, disgusting, perverse relationship that we seem to have with Israel?’ said Candace Owens, a popular podcaster and proponent of antisemitic conspiracy theories © Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

“That’s why they’re going full force” in Gaza, Hoffman said. “No one wants to stop them in the near term.”
For Netanyahu, the dramatic weakening of regional adversaries by Israel’s post-October 7 military campaigns has created a canvas of opportunity set against the ticking clock of Trump’s four-year term.

Israel “would like to be a regional hegemon”, said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a Washington think-tank. “They cannot be a regional hegemon without US support. But they would like to push it as far as they can go.”

Trump gave a green light to Israel’s attack on Iran, even as it targeted buildings and people that had little or nothing to do with nuclear technology. His administration has also tolerated Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon, despite a US-brokered ceasefire, and the expansion of its zone of control in Syria, which the US wants to see stabilised.

In Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, Trump has sided consistently with Netanyahu, blaming Hamas for the lack of progress towards an end to the violence despite Israel breaking a US-brokered ceasefire in March.

Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, left, and US President Donald Trump, during a bilateral meeting
Sir Kir Starmer, UK prime minister, left, meets Trump on Monday in Scotland. Starmer has said Britain will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes immediate steps to end the crisis in Gaza © Tolga Akmen/EPA/Bloomberg