Trump confirms calling Netanyahu 'crazy' in expletive-laden phone call: 'A little bit perturbed'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, June 03, 2026

President Donald Trump confirmed in a Wednesday interview that he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" during a tense, expletive-laden phone call on Monday about escalating tensions in Lebanon.

Asked during an interview with New York Post journalist Miranda Devine about the veracity of a report claiming he called Netanyahu "f—ing crazy" while taking credit for keeping him out of jail, Trump said, "I did. I wouldn't say 'angry.' I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know. At some point, I said, 'Bibi, we've got to stop this. We gotta stop it.'"

President Trump says reports about a phone call in which he went off on Benjamin Netanyahu are true.

Trump says he called Netanyahu "crazy" and reminded him that he had kept him out of jail.

Trump says he is sick of Netanyahu's constant fighting with Lebanon.

"Bibi, we gotta… pic.twitter.com/MdR44aSxbC

— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) June 3, 2026

According to Axios, Trump cursed at Netanyahu during the phone call while accusing him of being ungrateful and disproportionately escalating strikes in Lebanon. A U.S. official who spoke to the outlet claimed Trump was upset that Israel has killed so many civilians in their ongoing strikes against Hezbollah in the region, including destroying buildings to target one Hezbollah commander.

"You're f—ing 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," Trump reportedly told the prime minister, apparently referencing the support Trump has shown Netanyahu during his corruption trial, which resumed Tuesday.

Speaking with Devine, Trump downplayed the reportedly heated nature of their conversation, claiming the two have "worked very well together."

"I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him," he added. "I'm a wartime president. He's a wartime prime minister."

Netanyahu also brushed off his exchange with Trump when asked about it during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.

"I'm not going to get into details," Netanyahu said of the call, likening their argument to a familial disagreement.

"We have common goals. Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, these tactical disagreements. We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends."

Netanyahu also framed the war with Iran as a fight for all Western democracies, claiming Iran would be able to bomb every European capital and American city if it were to obtain a nuclear weapon.

"We're faced with an enemy that wants to destroy our country, that wants to destroy your country, that wants to destroy free democracies everywhere and spread their terrorist ilk around the globe," he said.

"So, when we fight Iran and its proxies, we're not only fighting our war, we're fighting your war, and frankly, Europe's war as well," he added.

Israel's expanding ground presence in southern Lebanon and threatened strikes on the Lebanese capital of Beirut have endangered U.S.-Iran peace talks. Tehran has demanded that Israel stop attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and dismantling its nuclear program.