Trump says he was perturbed by Netanyahu over Lebanon fighting

President Donald Trump confirmed he called Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” in a Monday phone call and said he was “a little bit perturbed” by Israel’s fighting in Lebanon, even as he floated a future meeting with Iran’s supreme leader if things “work out.”

Speaking on the “Pod Force One” podcast, Trump said of Netanyahu, “I did,” when asked about the exchange, and added, “I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him.” He also said he and the Israeli prime minister “get along very well” and “work very well” together, a familiar line that sat uneasily beside his sharper criticism of Israel’s actions along the Lebanon front.

Trump’s comments landed while Washington was trying to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran. Tehran had said it would not accept any deal to end the war unless a ceasefire also covered Lebanon, where Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah. A U.S.-mediated agreement announced Monday had led Israel to step back from attacking the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and prompted Hezbollah to halt cross-border strikes, but the fighting did not fully stop. On Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut.

The president also used the interview to project confidence about the broader confrontation. He said Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon, described the conflict as a U.S. and Israeli success, and said he would probably meet with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei at some point if things worked out. Trump said Khamenei was “involved, absolutely” in the negotiations and said he had not had “the privilege of meeting” him. “I’d like to meet him,” Trump said, while adding that if a deal did not happen, the United States would do it “the other way.”

The remarks underscored the strain in Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu at a moment when the conflict’s stakes extended far beyond the battlefield. Reuters reported that the fighting had upended the global energy market and was unpopular with Americans months before November congressional elections, raising the political cost of any widening war. Trump’s decision to publicly scold Netanyahu while signaling direct outreach to Iran suggested an attempt to reshape leverage in the region, but the violence in Lebanon showed how quickly that message could be overtaken by events on the ground.