Donald Trump has confirmed calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy during a heated phone conversation about fighting in Lebanon.
The U.S. president made the admission during a podcast interview aired on Wednesday. He was responding to an Axios report about the exchange.
"I did," Trump told the "Pod Force One" podcast when asked directly about the comment. He added that he wasn't angry, just "a little bit perturbed."
Netanyahu's constant military operations in Lebanon bothered him, Trump explained. The two leaders were discussing how to end the conflict at the time.
According to Axios, Trump had told Netanyahu on Monday: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me."
Trump went further in that same call. "I'm saving your ass.
Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this," he reportedly said.
During the podcast, Trump paraphrased his position more carefully. "At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this.
We got to stop it," he recalled.
Netanyahu's office declined to comment on Trump's confirmation. Israeli media outlets have quoted unnamed sources downplaying tensions between the two allies.
Israel invaded Lebanon in March to pursue Hezbollah fighters. The Iran-backed militia had been launching attacks across the border in support of Tehran.
Iran won't agree to any peace deal unless Lebanon is included in the ceasefire arrangement. Tehran made that position clear to U.S. negotiators.
A U.S.-brokered agreement was announced Monday between Israel and Hezbollah. It required Israel to halt attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs and Hezbollah to stop cross-border strikes.
But violence hasn't stopped since then. Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources reported.
Israel says it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah that same day. The military confirmed it shot down the incoming weapon.
Trump bristled when journalists asked if Netanyahu had tricked him into attacking Iran. He called his critics "the enemy" and rejected the premise entirely.
"I'm the one that started it," Trump countered. He said the decision was necessary because Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
Israel would've faced the worst consequences if Iran had nuclear capability, Trump argued. "There would be no Israel without me," he declared bluntly.
Trump pointed to his withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal signed under President Barack Obama. That agreement had limited Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
When Trump pulled out of that accord in 2018, Iran began stockpiling enriched uranium. Trump now demands Tehran surrender those materials completely.
Critics argue Iran is now closer to building a nuclear weapon than ever before. They say negotiating a better deal than Obama's will prove extremely difficult.
Trump maintains he made the right call abandoning the agreement. He believes Israel would be far worse off today if the deal had remained in place.
