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”.

At one point during his interview, Trump was also asked about people saying Netanyahu “tricked” him into the Iran war.

Criticising the Democrats for such remarks and their policy stances, Trump said, “I’m the one that started it […] because we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.

“Now, that pertains to Israel because they probably would have been the first ones to get hit […] I’ll tell you what, if it wasn’t for me, there would be no Israel right now,” he added, recalling his move to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The US-Iran conflict is currently stalemated in a shaky ceasefire more than three months after initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

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.

After Netanyahu ordered attacks on Beirut on Monday, Tehran said it considered the ceasefire violated “on all fronts” and accused the US of violating the truce. Iran also said it had suspended indirect negotiations with the US.

The announcement was initially shrugged off by Trump, but he later moved to allay Iranian concerns over Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Not only did he speak to his ally Netanyahu, but he also claimed to have exchanged views with Hezbollah through intermediaries — a first for a US president — to stop the fighting.

“There will be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops that are on their way have already been turned back”, he posted on Truth Social, adding that Hezbollah had also agreed to stop attacking Israel.

Iran situation ‘rapidly evolving’

During his interview with The Post, Trump voiced optimism regarding talks with Iran, saying that they were “rapidly evolving”. He also insisted that Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon and “lots of other good things are going to happen”.

Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said he is close to a deal to end the fighting and allow negotiators to tackle thorny issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump has said his top priority is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies it is developing a nuclear bomb and says its atomic programme is for peaceful purposes.

Trump also said during the interview that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was “involved, absolutely” in decisions to end the war. “I’d like to meet him,” he said, adding that the two would “probably meet at some point, depending on how it all works out”.

He reiterated his claims of destroying Iran’s military, saying, “Their navy’s wiped out. Their air force is all gone after three days. Their military was virtually wiped out.”

Trump remarked, “Now we have to make a determination — do we sign a deal or we do it the other way. And the other way is not nice.”

However, he added, “But I’d rather do it the nice way from a humanitarian standpoint.”

Asked about whether his “other way” would involve only bombing Iran, Trump replied, “Yeah, you don’t have to. We don’t need boots on the ground.”

Moreover, the US president asserted that gas prices in the United States would come down when the Iran conflict ends and that inflation at the moment is not “very much”.

“We don’t have very much inflation. Look, if you take away just the price of gasoline, the energy, we have very little inflation,” Trump said.