The interview was conducted with Israel Hayom, the newspaper owned by Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and close ally of Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Trump hosted Mr. Adelson and his wife for dinner at the White House on Thursday night, along with Mr. Kushner and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson.

The president’s language in the interview went beyond the carefully written statement issued by the White House last week saying that settlements were not an impediment to peace but they “may not be helpful.” The statement was seen as a sign that Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Netanyahu to hold off contentious moves, at least until their meeting next week.

Since Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Netanyahu’s government has announced the construction of 5,500 new houses in the occupied West Bank, and the prime minister even raised the idea of building the first entirely new settlement in years. Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition pushed through Parliament a new bill retroactively authorizing thousands of houses built on Palestinian-owned land that are illegal even under Israeli law.

“They don’t help the process,” Mr. Trump said of settlements in the Israel Hayom interview. “I can say that. There is so much land left. And every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left.” He added: “I am not somebody that believes that going forward with these settlements is a good thing for peace.”

Mr. Trump’s statement on the embassy move was also strikingly different than past comments.

Arab leaders have warned him that moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim, would lead to angry and possibly violent reactions because it would be seen as prejudging a final settlement between the two sides. The last three presidents refused to move the embassy there for that very reason.