President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “knows who the boss is” ahead of their planned tete-a-tete in Washington, DC.
Trump told Axios Saturday that Netanyahu could visit as early as next week and said that the relationship between the two leaders is still strong.
“We get along very good,” the president noted.
The pow wow could happen after Trump returns from the NATO summit in Turkey, which takes place July 7-8. Israeli officials, however, believe the two leaders won’t sit down face to face until the following week.
The pair spoke on the phone Friday and agreed to meet in “the near future,” according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office.
“The Prime Minister said in the conversation that the US is a guarantor of global freedom, and Israel highly appreciates the close bond between the two nations,” the statement added.
This will be Netanyahu’s first meeting with Trump since he pressed for war with Iran in a Situation Room meeting in February.
Though Trump maintains that he and Netanyahu have “a very good relationship,” tensions have risen between the two in recent months over the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran and Israel’s conduct in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump called Netanyahu “f–king crazy” over his attacks in Lebanon on June 1.
”You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” Trump confirmed to The Post he grilled the Israeli PM over airstrikes in Beirut.
Israel and Lebanon signed a tripartite agreement with the US on June 26 which called for a phased Israeli withdrawal for Southern Lebanon with the Lebanese Armed Forces assuming control of areas currently occupied by the Israel Defense Forces, as well as a demilitarization of Hezbollah.
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Vice President JD Vance also slammed members of Netanyahu’s coalition for criticizing the emerging Iran deal in a June 18 press conference.
“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” he said.
“The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.”
