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Trump Greets the Prime Minister of Israel at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025

December 29, 2025 · The White House · 0:15:31

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions as he greeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago on December 29, 2025, ahead of their meeting. On Gaza, he said the meeting would cover disarmament: “There has to be a disarming of Hamas” — otherwise, as he put it, it would happen very quickly. He also confirmed, as he stated it, a U.S. strike on the dock area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs: “We hit all the boats and now we hit the area… that is no longer around.”

On Ukraine, the President reported a call with President Putin that morning: “We have a few very thorny issues… if we get them resolved, you’re going to have peace,” he said, putting Ukraine’s losses, as he stated them, at 26,000 soldiers killed in the last month. On Turkish forces in Gaza, he said he has a great relationship with President Erdoğan and that the question would be discussed with Netanyahu. On Iran, he said: “I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down… But hopefully that’s not happening.” He called Netanyahu a wartime prime minister who has “taken Israel through a very dangerous period.”

Why it matters

The greet is a compact state-of-play across four live files on the morning of the Israel meeting — Hamas disarmament as the Gaza condition, the Venezuela dock strike confirmed by the President two days before the Maduro operation, the Putin call’s “thorny issues” framing the day after the Zelenskyy meeting, and the Iran warning — each in the President’s own words, filed ahead of the remarks page that closes the visit.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Venezuela dock-area strike confirmation and the Iran build-up warning, as stated by the President at this greet, are dated claims for the defense ledger. Noted for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Greets the Prime Minister of Israel at Mar-a-Lago,” Mar-a-Lago, December 29, 2025 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President in the exchange.