Netanyahu, Trump Talk Tariffs, Deficits, US-Iran Negotiations in Year's Second Meeting

JERUSALEM, Israel – Overshadowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's second trip to the White House this year are President Donald Trump's 17 percent tariffs on Israeli products. As he sat down with the president, he was concerned that the tariffs could cost the Jewish nation billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

So, in the White House, Netanyahu made some bold promises for significant changes to persuade Trump to end the tariffs.

"We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States," Netanyahu declared. "We intend to do it very quickly. We think it's the right thing to do, and we're also going to eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily."

Possibly the most crucial issue the two dealt with was halting the Iranian regime's race to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran could use them to help fulfill its promise to eliminate Israel.

The Israelis don't trust the Iranians to keep any promises made in meetings and deals.

It may have caused some uneasiness in Jerusalem when Trump announced, "We're having direct talks with Iran. And they've started. It'll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting and we'll see what can happen.  And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something I want to be involved with."

"The obvious" is using the superior military forces of the U.S. and Israel to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. That threat could have led Iran's leaders to renege on their promise never to hold direct talks with the American government.

The White House believes Iran made the smart choice.

"Hopefully, those talks will be successful," the president said. "And I think it would be in Iran's best interest if they are successful. And we hope that's going to happen."   

Trump also warned, "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it'll be a very bad day for Iran, if that's the case."

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