U.S. President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" and accused him of ingratitude during a phone conversation on Monday, according to Axios.
According to the report, Trump "lashed out" at Netanyahu over the Israeli leader's threat to bomb Beirut and the Israeli military's escalation of attacks in Lebanon. Citing two U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the call, Axios described the call as "expletive-laden."
Trump was furious that Israeli operations against Hezbollah risked derailing ongoing diplomacy with Iran and undermining efforts to preserve a fragile regional cease-fire, the report said.
One of the officials cited by Axios said that Trump told Netanyahu that bombing the Lebanese capital would also increase Israel's global isolation. Two of the sources told Axios that "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 president reportedly said: "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."
A second source briefed on the call said Trump was "pissed" and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: "What the fuck are you doing?"
Earlier Monday, the president told ABC News a framework agreement with Iran could be reached "over the next week."
Speaking to the broadcaster's chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl, in a phone interview, Trump said that a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and extend the current cease-fire could be completed and agreed to "over the next week."
"I still have to get a few more points," Trump said, according to ABC, adding that he had not yet signed off on the deal.
There has been no public confirmation from Iran that an agreement is imminent. Trump has previously announced ambitious timelines for diplomatic initiatives that were later delayed.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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The day after this, Israel started bombing Beirut. No sign of ceasefires as Trump claimed right after this call. So 2 possibilities:
a) The story is real but Israel doesn't care/can't afford to care about what the US feels about them. They know they'll be supported no matter what. As long as the funds, weapons and ammo keep coming, then the US can be mad at them as much as they want.
b) The story is propaganda. Its aim is to most likely make Trump appear strong, sell the idea to the US public that the US is not responsible for what Israel is doing (important for the upcoming elections), perhaps lull Iran and Hezbollah (particularly Iran after it issued counter-threats to Israel). Its primary goal though might have been internal Israeli politics. Netanyahu was made to appear weak, while figures like Ben Gvir were made to appear strong and decisive by responding to the story. It's been said for a while that the Israeli coalition government is rocked by internal conflicts and power struggles, so this is not unreasonable. Furthermore, if Netanyahu or other figures had qualms about continuing the invasion of Lebanon, then the outcry in response to this story has basically made it impossible to back down without looking extremely subservient to Trump.
I lean more towards the propaganda conclusion, particularly since the "reporter" who broke this story was Barak Ravid of Axios. An Israeli veteran of military psy-ops and cyber warfare, who has a long history of crafting propaganda pieces that serve the interests of Israel and the US, working for a publication with also a long history of pushing narratives in favour of US policies. Most recently, Barak Ravid has been responsible for most of the news you might have heard of the type: Iran has agreed to give up its nuclear material, Iran has agreed to open the straits, Iran's leadership is about to quit, The army is taking over Iran, Hezbollah has agreed to a ceasefire, etc etc.
Furthermore, this has happened during the Biden administration too, where Biden reportedly got into a row with Netanyahu on the phone, then a week after that the US sent Israel extra funds and all its wishlisted bombs.
Either way, the US will support Israel no matter what so it's irrelevant.