Overview
- During a televised White House roundtable on Thursday, President Trump told a French reporter he could not understand her and asked where she was from before calling her accent “beautiful.”
- After Attorney General Pam Bondi relayed the question, Trump said Israel was “not gonna do anything with the West Bank” and urged, “Don’t worry about it.”
- The exchange followed a preliminary Knesset vote that advanced measures to apply Israeli law in parts of the West Bank, a step that remains symbolic and requires multiple further readings.
- U.S. officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio, criticized the Israeli move, with Vance calling it a “very stupid political stunt” and saying annexation would not occur under U.S. policy.
- Critics labeled Trump’s remark to the reporter “snide” and “rude,” noting it echoed a similar incident in February when he said he could not understand another foreign journalist.