WASHINGTON — President Trump claimed in a new interview released Friday that he has to keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a little bit sane” while insisting he still has a “good” relationship with the leader of the Jewish state.
“If it weren’t for Donald Trump — and Bibi Netanyahu worked well with me, but he will tell you, we’re the ones with the guns, we’re the ones with the whole deal, we’re the ones with the B-2 bombers, etc.” the president told Axios reporter Mark Caputo.
“If it weren’t for Donald Trump, Israel would have been eviscerated.”
When asked whether he would be able to keep Israel from attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon to preserve a preliminary peace deal with Iran, the president was adament: “Yeah, I will be.”
“They have a lot of respect for me, and they do as I say.”
While Trump and Netanyahu have long been close, cracks in the relationship have appeared in recent weeks due to disagreements over the war against Iran and its proxies.
Earlier this month, Trump confirmed he had lambasted Netanyahu as “f—ing crazy” during a testy phone call following Israeli attacks against terror targets in southern Lebanon.
