The meeting has been criticised by Jewish groups like the Zionist Organisation of America, which honoured Trump just two days before his campaign launch, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, another potential Trump 2024 rival, who has become an outspoken Trump critic.

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“This is just another example of an awful lack of judgment from Donald Trump, which, combined with his past poor judgments, make him an untenable general election candidate for the Republican Party in 2024,” Christie told The New York Times.

On Saturday, Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, another potential 2024 rival, denounced anti-Semitism as “a cancer”, without directly referencing the dinner or the president under whom he served.

But other top Republicans, including many considering challenging Trump for the GOP nomination, have so far remained silent, underscoring the hold Trump maintains over the party, even as he has been blamed for their worse-than-expected showing during the midterm elections.