Israeli PM Netanyahu always brings his dirty laundry to US state visits so White House staff can clean them for free, report says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump at in the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington, DC, on September 15, 2020.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu often brings his dirty laundry with him on official visits to the US, so that government staff will clean it for free, The Washington Post reported.
• "The Netanyahus are the only ones who bring actual suitcases of dirty laundry for us to clean," a US official told The Post. "After multiple trips, it became clear this was intentional."
• The US government offers dry cleaning and laundry services free of charge to foreign dignitaries, according to The Post.
• Netanyahu last visited the White House on September 15. The Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, said there was nothing abnormal about Netanyahu's washing demands.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consistently brings bags of dirty laundry when he and his family visit President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, so White House staff can clean it for free, according to The Washington Post.

"The Netanyahus are the only ones who bring actual suitcases of dirty laundry for us to clean," an anonymous US official told The Post. "After multiple trips, it became clear this was intentional."

Since former President Barack Obama's administration, the US government has offered laundry services to all foreign leaders for free, The Post reported. The trend has continued into Trump's administration, US officials told the newspaper.

Netanyahu lasted visited the White House on September 15, 2020, when Trump presided over the signing of the Abraham Accords, a diplomatic-normalization agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

The Post did not specify where Netanyahu and his wife stayed the night, but the venue was likely Blair House, one of a clutch of buildings opposite the White House that together make up the President's Guest House.

Netanyahu also stayed at Blair House in January 2020 and March 2018.

—Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) March 4, 2018

The Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC outright denied there was anything unusual about Netanyahu's laundry habits.

"These groundless and absurd allegations are aimed at belittling Prime Minister Netanyahu's monumental achievement in Tuesday's historic peace summit brokered by President Trump at the White House," an embassy spokesperson told The Post.

"On this visit, for example, there was no dry cleaning, only a couple shirts were laundered for the public meeting, and the Prime Minister's suit and Mrs. Netanyahu's dress were ironed also for the public meeting."

"Oh yes, a pair of pajamas that the Prime Minister wore on the 12 hour flight from Israel to Washington was also laundered," the spokesperson said.

Reports detailing Netanyahu's abnormal laundry habits first emerged in the Israeli press in 2011 and in 2018, when Nir Hefetz, a former top aide to Netanyahu, said that "on every trip suitcases come filled with laundry for dry cleaning, and I'm telling you that journalists have asked me about it and I've checked the bills. Nothing appears in the bills, they somehow hide it."

Netanyahu's office told The Times of Israel the Post story was "recycled anonymous slander from the archives of the Israeli media."

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