In a candid interview today, US President Donald Trump revealed that he did in fact use strong language toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a recent phone call, venting frustration over Israel’s ongoing operations in Lebanon amid US efforts to broker an end to the conflict with Iran.
According to an Axios account published earlier this week, which relied on an unidentified US official, Trump told Netanyahu in a Monday phone call: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
Speaking on the Pod Force One podcast in an episode broadcast Wednesday after the report was released, Trump was directly asked about the matter and whether he called Netanyahu “effing crazy” and got angry with the Israeli leader.
“I did,” Trump replied, adding: “I wouldn’t say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know.”
He added that despite the tense moment, he and Netanyahu “get along very well.”
Trump recounted telling the prime minister: “At some point I said, ‘Bibi, we’ve got to stop this. We’ve got to stop it.'”
Israeli officials have remained silent publicly on the reported call since Axios published its story, and Netanyahu’s personal office also declined to publicly react to Trump’s confirmation of the remarks.
The exchange occurred as the US has been pushing for a resolution to the war with Iran that Trump and Netanyahu initiated in late February.
Tehran has consistently insisted that it will not be accepting any kind of ceasefire or peace agreement unless it includes a ceasefire in Lebanon, which Israeli forces invaded in March to target the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Hezbollah had been launching cross-border attacks into Israel in solidarity with their Iranian allies.
Trump’s “MAGA” base has been significantly split over the Iran war and Trump’s support for Israel, with many of his anti-war voters claiming he has abandoned his “America First” foreign policy plan and embroiled the country in another “forever war” that is not in US interests.
However, Trump himself and loyalists have claimed that Iran’s persistent attempts to acquire nuclear weapons posed an existential threat to US power, making the war necessary. They have also insisted that it will be concluded soon without spiraling into a long-term fiasco, though no exact timeline has been given.
Asked during the same Pod Force One interview, Trump pushed back on claims that he was deceived into going to war with Iran by Israel.
“I mean, I’m the one that started it,” he said, adding that “we can’t let them [Iran] have a nuclear weapon.”
It is anticipated that this division over Israel within the Republican party, which some have described as a kind of ideological “civil war”, will play a notable role in the upcoming mid-term elections this coming November.