Above, Trump and Netanyahu after talks at the White House in April 2025<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump reportedly fumed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Monday call, calling the premier \u201cfucking crazy\u201d and telling him that everyone \u201chates Israel\u201d as he demanded Israel agree to a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terror group.<\/p>\n
Axios\u2019s Barak Ravid<\/a> cited a US official who summarized Trump\u2019s message to Netanyahu as follows: \u201cYou\u2019re fucking crazy. You\u2019d be in prison if it weren\u2019t for me. I\u2019m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.\u201d<\/p>\n A second source briefed on the call told the outlet that the US president was \u201cpissed\u201d at the prime minister over his ostensible plans for major strikes at Hezbollah targets in Beirut, and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: \u201cWhat the fuck are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the sources also said Trump accused Netanyahu of ingratitude during the call on the escalation in fighting in Lebanon, a conversation that Axios described as \u201cexpletive-laden.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s office did not respond to the report.<\/p>\n An unnamed Netanyahu staffer on Tuesday denied core aspects of the report, however, including the claim that Trump cursed at Netanyahu and attacked him personally during the exchange, while acknowledging that the call was \u201ctense.\u201d<\/p>\n The US officials told Axios that Trump was aware Hezbollah has been firing repeatedly at Israel and recognizes that Jerusalem has a right to respond. Fourteen IDF soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah since the April ceasefire, and Hezbollah has stepped up rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel in recent days. But they said Trump believed the Israel Defense Forces had responded disproportionately in recent days, risking Washington\u2019s efforts to secure a ceasefire extension with Iran, which is conditioning a deal on a truce in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Trump \u201csteamrolled\u201d Netanyahu on the call, one of the US officials told Axios, and \u201cBibi said, \u2018OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n US officials were also quoted as saying Trump told Netanyahu that he has kept him out of prison, an apparent reference to Trump\u2019s repeated public demand that Israeli President Isaac Herzog pardon the prime minister, who is in the midst of a lengthy corruption trial.<\/p>\n In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he had a \u201cvery productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe turned his Troops around. Thank you Bibi!\u201d Trump said, describing Israel\u2019s attack plans as \u201ca major raid of Beirut.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli military sources said no troops had been en route to Beirut, contrary to Trump\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n \u201cLikewise \u2014 through highly placed representatives \u2014 I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop \u2014 that Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,\u201d Trump added, without specifying with whom he had communicated in the terror group, while also claiming Hezbollah consented to stop targeting Israeli troops.<\/p>\n On Tuesday afternoon, a member of Netanyahu\u2019s staff admitted to Channel 12 that the premier had a \u201ctense\u201d call with Trump on Monday night over Israel\u2019s planned attack on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, but denied core elements of the earlier Axios report \u2014 which was also prominently featured on Channel 12. Reporter Ravid works for both outlets.<\/p>\n The Tuesday report clarified that two calls took place between the leaders on Monday night, one at 7 p.m. Israel time and one close to midnight. It was the latter, according to Channel 12\u2019s Tuesday report, that was the tense call.<\/p>\n After the initial phone call, while Trump wrote on Truth Social that the IDF would not attack Beirut and that Israel and Hezbollah would refrain from attacking each other, Netanyahu warned that he would carry out his previous plans to strike Beirut if Hezbollah did not halt its attacks on northern Israel, and that Israel\u2019s expanded offensive in southern Lebanon would continue.<\/p>\n The second phone call focused on mutual complaints by the two leaders regarding their respective readouts of the first call, according to the Channel 12 report, with Trump upset that Netanyahu had implied that, aside from postponing strikes in Beirut, the war was continuing at full intensity, and Netanyahu frustrated that Trump\u2019s post implied that Israel had ceased fire on all fronts.<\/p>\n However, the Israeli source denied that Trump cursed at or personally attacked Netanyahu, claimed to be protecting him from going to prison, or stated that the premier and Israel are hated around the world. \u201cTrump did say during the second conversation that it is difficult to present Israel\u2019s position to the world and that this fuels hostility toward it,\u201d the Israeli source was reported saying. \u201cThe conversation ended with understandings according to which Israel would refrain from carrying out the postponed strike in Beirut, provided that it is not attacked within its own territory,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n Further confusing the issue, Ravid told Channel 12 on Tuesday afternoon that it was during the first call, not the second, that Trump swore at Netanyahu. The president, Ravid said, quoting US officials, came to that call convinced that Netanyahu was \u201cout of control,\u201d and believing that the prime minister was about to launch an attack on Beirut in which many innocent people would be killed. The conversation became \u201cincreasingly heated,\u201d to the point where Trump twice used the f-word.<\/p>\n Netanyahu often touts what he says is a strong and close relationship with Trump and the White House.\u00a0However, Monday\u2019s reported comments were not the first time the US president has expressed displeasure with him.<\/p>\n Last September, Trump reportedly<\/a> told top aides that Netanyahu is \u201cfucking me.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House also sent what Axios described<\/a> as a \u201cstern private message\u201d to Netanyahu that same month over the ceasefire with Hamas.<\/p>\nNetanyahu staffer downplays reported severity of call<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Public displeasure<\/strong><\/h3>\n