Donald Trump has said Gadi Eisenkot and Benjamin Netanyahu are 'very similar in terms of their policy', according to headlines on the Times of Israel live blog overnight on 9 November.
The comment is Trump's first reported reaction since Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, tasked Eisenkot with forming a government on 8 November. Eisenkot has 28 days to build a coalition.
The Times of Israel also reports Trump as saying Republicans did badly in the midterms because of a 'great dislike' for Israel. The Jerusalem Post carried the same point under the headline 'Trump cites dislike of Israel as factor in GOP losses'.
Only the headlines of these reports have been published so far. Trump's full wording and where he made the remarks have not been independently checked, and his account of the midterm results has not been tested against any figures.