US President Donald Trump has rounded on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon, swearing at him during a tense telephone call, US news site Axios has reported.
The call took place on June 1 as Israeli operations against the Shia militia Hezbollah threatened to derail Washington’s negotiations with Iran, according to Axios, which cited two US officials and a third source briefed on the conversation.
Trump was furious that Israel’s expanding campaign risked collapsing a fragile regional ceasefire, the report said. “You’re fucking crazy. What the fuck are you doing?” he reportedly told Netanyahu.
Trump also accused the Israeli leader of ingratitude, telling him he would be in prison were it not for American support. One official summarised his remarks as: “I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
The clash was triggered after Iran warned earlier that day that it would halt talks with the United States if Israeli action in Lebanon continued, Axios reported. Tehran is conditioning any deal on a truce in Lebanon.
US officials said Trump accepted that Hezbollah had repeatedly fired at Israel and that Israel had a right to respond, though he believed recent strikes had been disproportionate. One official said he objected to entire buildings being levelled to kill a single Hezbollah commander, and to the rising civilian death toll.
A second source said Trump had “steamrolled” the Israeli leader, quoting Netanyahu as replying: “OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of.”
After the call, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had asked Netanyahu “not to go into a major raid of Beirut” and that the Israeli leader had turned his troops around. He added that talks with Iran were continuing “at a rapid pace”.
Netanyahu struck a different tone in his own statement, saying he had told Trump that Israel would strike targets in Beirut if Hezbollah did not stop its attacks. “Our position remains the same,” he said, vowing to press on with operations in southern Lebanon.
The exchange marked one of the most strained calls between the two leaders since Trump returned to office, officials told Axios.
The friction followed the joint US-Israeli offensive launched against Iran on February 28, in which Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.
