'I was a little bit perturbed': Trump confirms expletive-laden phone call with Netanyahu
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US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he had lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the latter’s escalation in Lebanon in a recent expletive-laden phone call. On Monday, American news outlet Axios reported citing sources that Trump called Netanyahu “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude during the phone call. The report quoted a US official as saying that Trump told Netanyahu “you’re f****** crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this”. Trump confirmed to New York Post’s Miranda Devine during ‘Pod One Force’ podcast that he called Netanyahu “f****** crazy”, but also insisted that they have “worked very well together”. Asked if the Axios report was true and whether he spoke to Netanyahu in those terms, Trump replied, “I did. I wouldn’t say angry, I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon. “At some point, I said Bibi, we’re gonna stop this. We got to stop it,” he added. At the same time, Trump said, “But I have a very good relationship. […] We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump insisted after confirming his expletive-laden outburst demanding that Netanyahu cease attacks. “I’m a wartime president,” the commander in chief said. “He’s a wartime prime minister.” Trump further said that although he was frustrated by the possibility of Lebanon-Israel conflict derailing a larger peace, he remained optimistic about having a deal with Iran “fairly quickly”. The delicate diplomatic process keeping hopes for peace between Iran and the US seemed to teeter on Monday after Tehran and Washington offered diverging assessments of the status of negotiations, with Israel’s expanding front in Lebanon proving to be the main spoiler. The US-Iran conflict is currently stalemated in a shaky ceasefire more than three months after initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran. After Netanyahu ordered attack