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The Journal.

Inside Trump and Netanyahu’s Complicated Relationship

23 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What recent criticisms has Trump made about Netanyahu?

5.482 - 11.068 Ryan Knudsen

Lately, President Donald Trump has been increasingly critical of one of America's closest allies.

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13.491 - 19.217 Donald Trump

Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel.

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20.098 - 25.263 Ryan Knudsen

More specifically, Trump has been calling out Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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25.644 - 33.312 Donald Trump

I've had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.

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33.528 - 41.156 Ryan Knudsen

That's Trump at a press conference last week. He went on to criticize Netanyahu's tactics against one of Iran's allies in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

41.797 - 52.148 Donald Trump

And too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah.

52.168 - 66.563 Ryan Knudsen

Their conversations in private have gotten heated, too. At one point, Trump told Netanyahu over the phone that he was, quote, effing crazy. Why is the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu important?

67.625 - 89.413 Josh Dawsey

Well, it's important because, A, it's one of the United States' top allies, and B, the two men have been prosecuting this war together in Iran for the last four or five months. That's our colleague Josh Dossey. They went in together. Netanyahu was critical to convincing the president that it was a good idea. The troops have been fighting together.

89.553 - 98.282 Josh Dawsey

And sort of how this winds down, the relationship between those two men, is integral to figuring out what happens next in the Middle East.

Chapter 2: How did the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu begin?

673.738 - 691.825 Josh Dawsey

Netanyahu was not part of the conversations, and he did not understand that the United States was about to sign this deal. The Israelis believed that they were more likely to do more strikes instead of the deal. And initially, they don't even give a text of a memorandum of understanding. They don't even know what it says.

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691.805 - 705.763 Josh Dawsey

Netanyahu was fiercely trying to get a meeting with President Trump, who's going overseas for the G7 and has all sorts of surrogates and allies reaching out to the president to express concern about the deal. The president's pretty resolute. You know, I want a deal.

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706.958 - 715.172 Ryan Knudsen

Trump, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu because Israel continued to bomb Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.

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715.453 - 724.048

Israel has just carried out strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. Israel has bombed sites in southern Beirut, killing at least three people.

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724.529 - 728.275 Ryan Knudsen

These strikes in Lebanon, what was the significance of that and why did that upset President Trump?

728.66 - 744.096 Josh Dawsey

Well, it upset the president because he was on the cusp of striking a deal with the Iranians. And what he's afraid is going to happen is it's going to blow up the entire calculus, right? And that the Iranians are going to be less likely to make a deal with these missiles flying, you know, back and forth, right?

744.577 - 756.169 Josh Dawsey

So what you're seeing happen this day, he's trying to get these terms of a deal with the Iranians. And then Yahoo is on a different page and, you know, is launching kinetic action. And the president is apoplectic about it.

758.866 - 774.192 Ryan Knudsen

On Saturday, June 13th, Trump spoke with Netanyahu over the phone. And according to Josh's sources, Trump scolded him for bombing Beirut and accused him of trying to sabotage the agreement. The next day, Josh called Trump on his cell phone.

774.577 - 796.18 Josh Dawsey

On Sunday, his birthday, I actually called him in the morning because I saw he had posted about the strikes in Lebanon and him not wanting the strikes in Lebanon. And I said, if he's posting on this on Truth Social, you know, I'm going to call him and see if he wants to say anything. And he didn't answer. And then three or four hours later, he called me back.

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