Trump chided Israel’s Netanyahu that ‘all the Jews are sick of you’: new book
President Trump engaged in an expletive-laden tirade against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a September 27 telephone call over Netanyahu’s reluctance to accept a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas war, according to the book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Trump pressured Netanyahu to “f***ing go along with this” because the war had “gone on for too f***ing long,” and declared that “Everybody’s sick of you, Bibi. All the Jews are sick of you,” including Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were listening on the call.
Trump threatened Netanyahu with “a divorce” between the two countries if he did not accept the peace agreement Kushner had drafted, while simultaneously claiming he was “the best friend Israel ever had.” Trump’s pressure campaign ultimately succeeded, and Netanyahu accepted the agreement 18 days after an Israeli airstrike on a Hamas leader in Doha, Qatar that had prompted the ceasefire discussion.
Despite the acrimonious exchange, Netanyahu subsequently convinced Trump to join Israel in initiating military action against Iran months later. This escalation disrupted global markets after Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, demonstrating how Trump’s volatile personal relationship with Netanyahu translated into broader geopolitical consequences driven by Netanyahu’s strategic interests rather than careful deliberation.