Nelk Boys Called "Out of Their Depth" for Awkward Interview With Benjamin Netanyahu

When influencers the Nelk Boys sat down to interview controversial Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was a shock to many. The influencers usually stick to the realm of pushing their Happy Dad seltzer or pranking one another while showing off their lavish lifestyles. So their sudden foray into international and foreign affairs seemed a bit abrupt.

That is, if you forget that they once controversially interviewed then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In an interview that was clearly a massive deviation from their typical content, the Nelk Boys allowed Netanyahu to speak essentially unchallenged to an enormous online audience, utilizing their popularity to promote his international messaging. Many have called it "disastrous," blasting the influencers for wading into a topic they admitted to not being equipped to handle. But who set up the interview?

The answer may surprise you.

When hosts Kyle Forgeard and Aaron “Steiny” Steinberg sat down with Netanyahu to start the interview, they both acknowledged that they were in a weird place, being given the chance to interview an international leader. It's a deviation from vlogs, pranks, and crude humor, to say the least.

It seemed like an unusual choice for the group, who have waded into political issues before but mostly stick to what they know.

So who exactly set up such a bizarre interview? According to Kyle and Aaron, it was someone at the White House.

In a podcast interview with Hasan Piker, they were asked who connected them with Netanyahu, of all people.

Kyle responded, "Someone on the communications team from the White House hit us up, connected us with their communications team, and presented us with the opportunity."

If it sounds odd, that's because it is.

Podcast and news influencer Philip DeFranco tackled the topic on his show, pointing out that the two were "out of their depth." A rattled-looking Kyle shared that someone had even accused them of speaking to the equivalent of "modern-day Hitler."

The move, Philip pointed out, seemed to echo Trump's former campaign strategy of looking outside the box to non-traditional media to promote his messages, which makes sense, if someone from the White House arranged the interview.

However, he added, the problem with people who have no experience interviewing such an important figure is that they don't know what to challenge him on, basically providing him an international bullhorn from which he can say anything he wants without being fact checked.

In the comments of Philip's video and elsewhere on TikTok, people seem to agree.

One user wrote in disbelief, "Gaza has reached level 5 famine. They asked him about McDonald’s." Another scoffed, "They couldn’t *educate* themselves on the topic before interviewing him?"

And another user went further, adding, "Kids in Gaza are starving, and they asked him if he prefers McDonald’s or Burger King. A conversation they talked about for a few minutes. While innocent men, women, and kids are starving because of him."

The backlash has seemed to extend to nearly all corners of the internet, with users on multiple platforms blasting the influencers for jumping feet-first into a topic they clearly don't understand and platforming Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who currently has an active warrant from the International Criminal Court, which says that the prime minister is "allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."