Trump Confirms He Called Netanyahu "Crazy": "I Was Troubled by the Fighting in Lebanon"

President Donald Trump said in an interview on the "New York Post" podcast that he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" during a phone call on Monday, but insisted that the two have "worked very, very well together."

Trump said: "I was a little troubled by his nonstop fighting in Lebanon." He continued: "We worked very, very well together. I like Bibi very much. And I work with him very well. I am a president during wartime, he is a prime minister during wartime, in a very important region of the world, and we work very well."

Although Trump said he is concerned that a conflict between Lebanon and Israel could derail the peace agreement with Iran, he said he remains optimistic and that a deal will be reached "fairly quickly." Trump also boasted about record highs in the stock market, which he said reflect the strength of the American economy, and pushed back against forecasts predicting an even sharper spike in oil prices: "Everybody said it would get to 300 or 400 dollars a barrel. It's 98 dollars a barrel, but that's not a big price to pay if you think about the possibility that they would have nuclear weapons."

Trump went on to paint an optimistic picture of the negotiations with Iran, saying the talks are "moving along rapidly" and that "they will not have nuclear weapons, and many other good things are going to happen." He also said that Iran has agreed that it will not have nuclear weapons and that the ayatollahs in Iran are involved in the negotiations. 

Trump's use of blunt language toward Netanyahu was first reported Monday by Axios. The report was met with disbelief among some pro-Israel supporters in the United States, including conservative commentator Mark Levin, who called on the FBI to investigate who passed the information to the media. He argued that publishing the remarks helped Iran.