Trump confirms he called Netanyahu crazy in phone call

US President Donald Trump has admitted calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy in an expletive-filled phone call about the conflict in Lebanon as the US tried to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran.

In an interview published Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he called the longtime Israeli leader “crazy” and accused him of being ungrateful, paraphrasing a report from Axios.

“I did,” Trump told the Pod Force One podcast.

“I wouldn’t say angry. His constant fighting with Lebanon was making me a little nervous, you know.”

Trump said that he and Netanyahu got along very well.

According to an Axios report based on an unnamed US official, Trump told Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday: “You’re crazy. If it weren’t for me, you’d be in jail. I’m saving your ass. Now everyone hates you. That’s why everyone hates Israel.”

Trump said in the interview: “At one point I said Bibi, we’ve got to stop this. We’ve got to stop this.”

Iran has said it will not accept a deal with the United States to end the war that Trump and Netanyahu launched in late February; unless the ceasefire also includes Lebanon, which Israel occupied in March in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah militias who opened fire across the border in support of Tehran.

Clashes have continued despite a US-brokered deal announced on Monday, which saw Israel back down from attacking Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs and the Iran-backed group halt cross-border attacks.

Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, while Israel said it intercepted an enemy aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.

Trump bristled when asked if Netanyahu “tricked” him into attacking Iran, saying his critics were “enemies.”

Trump has used profanities about Israel in the past; This includes last year when he publicly stated that Israel and Iran “don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”