Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump confirmed during a new interview that he did indeed speak in very frank terms to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid the ongoing war against Iran and increasingly volatile tensions between Israel and Lebanon.
“I did,” he told Pod Force One’s host, Miranda Devine, during an interview at the White House, when asked about a recent phone call that was allegedly leaked to the press.
The president continued, “I wouldn’t say ‘angry.’ I was a little bit perturbed at [him] constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know? At some point, I said, ‘Bibi, we gotta stop this.’”
This news came after the president announced this week that he had intervened to try to stop the bloodshed between Israel and Lebanon, and subsequently held phone calls with both Netanyahu and Israel’s terrorist enemy, Hezbollah, as reported by RSBN.
“I had a very 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,” the president said on Monday in a Truth Social statement.
President Trump said at that time that neither Hezbollah nor Israel would be attacking each other.
Netanyahu later released his own statement that struck a somewhat contradictory tone:
“Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens—Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut. This stance of ours remains unchanged. In parallel, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.”
During his comments to Pod Force One, President Trump emphasized that despite the frank conversation between himself and the Israeli prime minister, they had a good working relationship.
“I have a really good relationship…I like Bibi a lot, and I’ve worked very well with him…I’m a wartime president, he’s a wartime prime minister,” the president told Devine.
The president’s comments to the outlet were a response to a report, released this week by Axios, that leaked an alleged phone call between President Trump and PM Netanyahu. The allegations in the report, now seemingly confirmed by the president during his comments to Miranda Devine, cited inside U.S. officials as its sources.
From Axios:
‘Two of the sources said Trump claimed he’d helped keep Netanyahu out of jail — a reference to his support during Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
Summarizing Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official said: “You’re f*cking 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 second source briefed on the call said Trump was “pissed” and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: “What the f*ck are you doing?”‘
