Former US president Donald Trump has cut ties with one of his closest allies on the world stage, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump and Netanyahu were full of praise for each other while in office, and co-operated to negotiate a series of peace deals between the Middle Eastern nation and previously hostile countries.
But Trump's view of Netanyahu soured in the aftermath of his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 US election, when the Israeli – who was still prime minister at the time – formally congratulated Biden on winning.
"Congratulations Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Joe, we've had a long and warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel," Netanyahu said in a statement at the time.
"I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the US and Israel."
This seemingly innocuous message, typical of world leaders congratulating each other on their election victories, did not please Trump.
"I haven't spoken to him since," the former president told Axios correspondent Barak Ravid in an interview for the journalist's new book Trump's Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East.
Ravid conducted two interviews with Trump. Writing for Axios today, he said Trump "repeatedly criticised" Netanyahu during those conversations.
"The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with," Trump said.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump attend the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020. Photo / AP
"Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake.
"I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi. But I also like loyalty. The first person to congratulate Biden was Bibi.
"He was very early, like, earlier than most."
Netanyahu was not, in fact, the "first person" to congratulate Biden on his election victory. His statement on November 8 actually came hours after many other world leaders had issued their messages, and more than 12 hours after US news networks called the election.
Even so, it came while Trump was disputing the result (incidentally, he is still disputing the result now, more than a year later).
Ravid reports Trump was "fixated" on the fact that some leaders, such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin, held off on congratulating Biden. He believes "they felt the election was rigged".
Netanyahu is currently Israel's Opposition leader, having lost power earlier this year.
Trump holds no formal political role at the moment, though he remains active in US politics and has repeatedly hinted he will run for president again in 2024.
"I am certainly thinking about it, and we'll see," he said in one interview with Fox News, for example.
"I think a lot of people will be very happy, frankly, with the decision, and probably we'll announce that after the [2022] midterms."
He has made similar remarks in several interviews throughout the past six months. Polls consistently show Trump would win the Republican nomination, and Biden's sagging approval ratings suggest he would have a realistic chance in the general election, too.
Trump was the first sitting US president to lose an election since George HW Bush in 1992, and the first to see his party lose the White House and both houses of Congress in a single term since Herbert Hoover in the 1930s.
After his defeat, he repeatedly claimed to have actually won in "a landslide", arguing Biden's victory was because of widespread voter fraud.
Trump's claims were tested in court and went nowhere, with judges often berating the then-president's lawyers for offering no credible evidence.
All 50 states certified their election results, in some cases after multiple recounts, and Biden won the electoral college vote 306-232, having won the popular vote by about seven million ballots.
