DOMINANT ANGLE
Brasília views Trump's move as an uncertain electoral gamble for Netanyahu, just nine days before the vote, in an Israel still marked by October 7 and the war against Iran.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Trump wrote on Sunday, October 18, on Truth Social: "Let this letter serve to represent my complete and total support for Bibi Netanyahou" for his re-election (G1).
- 02
Folha highlights that there is no guarantee that Trump's statement will benefit Netanyahou and the Likud in the October 27 elections.
- 03
In a Likud campaign video, Netanyahou promises to work with the White House to "eliminate the Iranian threat within the next two years" (Veja).
ANALYSIS
Brasília, October 19, 2026. The Brazilian press reports that Donald Trump expressed his "complete and total support" for Benyamin Netanyahou, a candidate for re-election in the Israeli legislative elections on October 27, on Truth Social last Sunday, October 18. G1 notes that the American president describes him as a "great warrior prime minister" and a partner for peace, and credits him with joining the United States in the strikes against Iran launched in February.
In his letter to the "Great People of Israel", Trump writes that "Bibi Netanyahu has been strong, courageous and brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including from within Israel itself". Folha also quotes the phrase stating that he is "the kind of partner the United States demands from Israel, a country for which they have done so much". Netanyahou thanked his ally on X, then, according to G1, asked undecided voters to take this support into account and mentioned a mission still to be accomplished.
The headlines put the message into the context of a war that has been going on. G1 emphasizes that the conflict with Iran, which has entered its seventh month, has disrupted the world's energy markets and destabilized the economies of the region. Folha recalls that the war began with strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In electoral terms, Folha presents the vote as the first since the start of the conflict with Hamas on October 7, 2023, and as a test for the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel's history, at the head of the most right-wing government ever formed. The daily warns that there is "no guarantee" that Trump's statement will benefit the Likud. It mentions centrist rivals who promise a new era.
Veja focuses on the Likud campaign: a recent video where Netanyahou boasts about his relationship with Trump, the military victories that would have "crushed Iran" and the promise, with the White House, to "eliminate the Iranian threat within the next two years". The weekly notes that the Prime Minister, while benefiting from the majority support of the population in the wars against Hamas and Iran, is still targeted by suspicions of serious security breaches on October 7. It estimates the Gaza war at at least 75,000 Palestinian deaths and 2,000 Israeli deaths, according to official figures.
