Trump denies asking Netanyahu to stop Gaza ceasefire agreement because it would help Harris’ election campaign

Claim:

In a phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump urged the Israeli prime minister to stop a ceasefire agreement with Gaza because it would help Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.

Evaluation:

On August 20, 2024, a PBS Newshour Pruning– in which journalist Judy Woodruff suggested that former US President Donald Trump had telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him not to agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip because it would help the presidential campaign of his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris – spread across social media.

The clip was divided multiple times on XSome added that this was a violation of the Logan Act and pointed to a US law of 1799 Prohibition for ordinary citizens to negotiate with foreign powers.

Woodruff was responding to a question about how U.S. President Joe Biden could best help Harris win the 2024 election. The moment Woodruff made these claims occurred at minute 3:00:47 in the full PBS newscast, which you can find here:

I would venture to say, without having heard this directly from anyone, that the Harris team would like to see President Biden now broker a ceasefire in the Middle East between Gaza and Israel. And we know that Secretary of State Blinken is there right now, working with Netanyahu.

Former President Trump is reportedly on the phone with the Israeli prime minister urging him not to do a deal now because it would help Harris’ campaign. So I don’t know where this is going, I don’t know, who knows if it’s going to happen or not.

But I have to assume that the Harris team would expect President Biden to do what presidents do, which is work on this issue. And there may be other domestic issues they would like to see addressed as well.

Woodruff did not initially specify which “reporting” she was referring toShortly after her comments, American Muckrakers, a liberal political action committee (PAC), said it had filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice, asking the agency to investigate Trump’s alleged violations of the Logan Act by “negotiating with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and/or interfering in relations between the United States, Israel, and other parties.”

Her statement was in reference to Woodruff’s comments and a Reuters report on an Axios report that said Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone on August 14, 2024, and discussed the Israeli hostages and the Gaza ceasefire deal. Two unnamed sources reportedly told Axios that Trump may have pressured Netanyahu to make a deal, but could not confirm this.

In statements to Snopes, Trump’s office denied that such a call ever took place, while Netanyahu’s team said the story was not true. Woodruff also subsequently corrected herself, saying her comments were a “mistake.”

There was also no independent verification of the topics discussed in the alleged phone call, Axios reported, adding an editor’s note to its article saying, “This story has been updated to reflect that Netanyahu’s office denied that a phone call between the Israeli prime minister and former President Trump took place on Wednesday.”

Although Trump and Netanyahu denied the claim and Woodruff issued a correction, Axios still cited two unnamed sources who said the call took place. Because Snopes was unable to locate these unidentified sources to verify the claim, we have rated this claim as “unsubstantiated.”

“PBS is making up false stories. The only thing President Trump told the Prime Minister previously was to ‘get the war over with.’ Any claim to the contrary is false news,” a Trump spokesperson told us.

In a post on X on August 21, 2024, Woodruff apologized for his comments:

I want to clarify my remarks on Monday night’s PBS News special on the ongoing Middle East ceasefire talks. As I said, this was not based on my original reporting; I was referring to reports I had read on Axios and Reuters that former President Trump had spoken with the Israeli prime minister. In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I had missed later reports that both sides denied it. That was a mistake, and I apologize for it.

The Jerusalem Post, an Israeli news media outlet, stated in an article dated August 21, 2024, that Netanyahu’s office categorically rejected Woodruff’s claim, and called it a “complete lie.” We also contacted Netanyahu’s office and were told that the story was “not true.”

Trump acknowledged discussing the ceasefire with Netanyahu in July 2024 when the Israeli prime minister visited the United States. Netanyahu visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Trump told reporters in mid-August that he encouraged Netanyahu to end Israel’s war in Gaza, but also criticized calls for a ceasefire.

“He knows what he’s doing. I’ve encouraged him to get this over with,” Trump told reporters. “It’s got to be over quickly. (…) Get your victory and get it over with. It’s got to stop, the killing’s got to stop.”

At another event the same day, Trump said: “From the beginning, Harris has tried to tie Israel’s hands behind its back by calling for an immediate ceasefire, calling for a ceasefire again and again.” He added that this “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch another October 7-style attack.”

Trump also said: “I will give Israel the support it needs to win, but I want it to win quickly.”

Biden said in mid-August 2024 that a ceasefire agreement was in sight and warned all parties not to undermine the negotiations. The current ceasefire agreement is divided into three phases and would eventually include the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, although Israeli officials are calling for a better solution to control the border between Egypt and Gaza.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have at least 40,000 people killede, the Qatari media network Al Jazeera reported on August 15, 2024. According to the Israeli military, there are still over 100 Israeli hostages in Gaza, but only 73 of them are said to be alive.

Woodruff based her statement on an Axios report that was reported by Reuters and later dismissed as false by both Trump and Netanyahu. However, the Axios report, citing two sources, claimed that such a phone call did indeed take place, although the news organization did not confirm what was discussed between the two men. Therefore, until we have independent confirmation of the contents of the alleged phone call, we have rated this claim as “unproven.”