President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” and used profanity during a phone call Monday, backing the main points of an Axios report that described the call as profanity-laced and unusually personal.
“I did. I always get angry,” Trump said on the New York Post podcast Pod Force One, hosted by Miranda Devine. “I was a little bit perturbed at him, constantly fighting with Lebanon.”
Axios, citing two U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the call, reported that Trump told Netanyahu: “You’re f—ing 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.”
A source briefed on the call told Axios that Trump at one point yelled, “What the f— are you doing?”
One official told Axios that Trump believed Israel had responded disproportionately to Hezbollah attacks. He also objected to Israeli forces leveling entire buildings to target a single Hezbollah commander, the official said. A separate official described it as one of the worst calls between the two leaders since Trump returned to office.
The call came after Iran threatened to suspend peace negotiations with Washington over Israel’s military operations in Lebanon. Officials told Axios that Trump feared the escalation was derailing those negotiations. After speaking with Netanyahu, Trump posted on social media that Iran talks were moving “at a rapid pace” and that Netanyahu had “turned his Troops around.”
Netanyahu’s office did not respond publicly. An unnamed Netanyahu staffer told Channel 12 the call was “tense” but pushed back on claims that Trump personally attacked the prime minister. The Times of Israel later reported that a senior Israeli official said that account was accurate.
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