By SCM Correspondent
WASHINGTON — In a fiery, behind-the-scenes telephone conversation that highlights the severe undercurrent of friction defining modern U.S.-Israel relations, President Donald J. Trump delivered a blistering personal rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, declaring that Jewish people globally had grown tired of his leadership.
The details of the explosive call, which took place in September 2025 during the United Nations General Assembly, were revealed in the newly published book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, authored by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
The disclosure provides a raw, unfiltered look at how a once-flourishing political alliance has degraded into deep-seated personal animosity and operational gridlock behind closed doors.
According to write-ups of the book, President Trump blew up at the Israeli premier while pushing for compliance with a Washington-backed, 20-point plan aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and initiating a reconstruction framework for the enclave.
”Everybody’s sick of you, Bibi,” Mr. Trump reportedly shouted into the phone, using the Prime Minister’s ubiquitous nickname. “All the Jews are sick of you.”
The American president then turned the focus toward his own senior aides who were patched into the line, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and real estate executive turned Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff. Both men are Jewish.
”Even the two Jews on this call are sick of you,” Mr. Trump added, using his advisers’ presence to punch home his dissatisfaction with the Israeli leader’s negotiating stance.
The baseline relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu has long been defined by transaction rather than ideological harmony. During his first term in office, Mr. Trump enacted major policy shifts favored by the Israeli right wing—including relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and exiting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
However, deep-seated resentment took root after the 2020 presidential election when Mr. Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on his victory, an act Mr. Trump viewed as an ultimate betrayal. While the two leaders publicly patched over their differences during the 2024 presidential campaign, the friction reignited almost immediately upon Mr. Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
According to the account, as Mr. Trump attempted to finalize a complex hostage-and-ceasefire agreement to conclude the two-year-old war in Gaza, he grew increasingly convinced that Mr. Netanyahu was deliberately stalling the diplomatic process for domestic political survival.
”I’m the best friend Israel ever had,” Mr. Trump reportedly told Mr. Netanyahu on the call, demanding that he stop trying to back out of the proposed parameters. “Everybody hates you, and I’ve stood by you.”
The airing of these explosive remarks arrives during an exceptionally delicate diplomatic period. In recent weeks, public strains between Washington and Jerusalem have burst into view as the United States navigates fragile, newly minted agreements with regional powers and attempts to manage ongoing military friction in Lebanon and Iran.
White House officials, speaking anonymously to discuss internal deliberations, noted that Mr. Trump’s frustrations have frequently bubbled over during Oval Office briefings. In recent weeks, the president has used explicit language in private to describe Mr. Netanyahu as highly erratic and lacking strategic judgment, particularly concerning the targeting of urban residential areas in regional strikes.
A separate excerpt from the Haberman and Swan book also revealed that in the early months of his second administration, Mr. Trump privately labeled the long-serving Israeli prime minister a “con man”—a sentiment fueled by lingering grievances over a 2020 joint operation to assassinate Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, which Mr. Trump maintains Israel backed out of at the final moment.
Spokespersons for both the White House and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment directly on the leaked transcript of the phone conversation.
However, the revelation underscores a stark geopolitical reality: while the structural framework of the U.S.-Israel alliance remains intact, the personal bridge between the leaders tasked with steering it has largely collapsed into acrimony.
