U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 29, 2025. AP-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, with wars in Iran and Ukraine at critical stages and his ties with both leaders markedly different.
Relations with Zelenskyy have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances, while Netanyahu arrives amid growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump's supporters who oppose deeper U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
The two men are in Washington to attend a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican who was one of Trump's closest allies and who frequently tried to coax Trump into providing more support for Ukraine's war.
Both the Ukraine war and widening Middle East conflict are at critical junctures. After the collapse of a ceasefire in the Iran war, Trump says he has paused U.S. airstrikes to give diplomacy another chance. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has been buoyed by Ukraine's recent successes.
