Netanyahu joins Trump for high-stakes meeting at the White House

This month, the U.S. carried out strikes for nearly two straight weeks, while Iran struck ships and American targets in the region. The sit-down will be their first face-to-face meeting since Axios reported last month that Trump had called Netanyahu “f—ing crazy” during a heated phone call. Trump confirmed the report was accurate in an interview with the New York Post. “I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon,” Trump said.

Asked about the confrontation, Netanyahu said he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements.” “We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends,” he said.

Trump has declined to say whether he supports Netanyahu for re-election. Earlier this month, he dodged a question, saying that Netanyahu has been “a great wartime president.”

“He’s been a great wartime prime minister,” Trump said this month. “I don’t know anything about his politics, I’m not sure. I would think he should be popular, because he did a very good job.”

The meeting also comes amid scrutiny from lawmakers over the administration’s handling of the war since the U.S. and Israel launched it in late February. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in recent days, bringing the total number of American troops killed during the war to 18.

NBC News has also previously reported that U.S. weapons stockpiles are diminishing and that U.S. military commanders are allowing some Iranian missiles and drones to pass U.S. defenses to preserve the weapons supply. At the same time, the Defense Department is requesting that Congress approve an additional $67 billion in supplemental funding to expand weapons production and speed up delivery.

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, argued in an interview on “Meet the Press” that the U.S. “has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be.”

Asked whether Trump had decided against escalating attacks on Iran, Waltz said that the president was giving talks between the two nations “some space” but that all options remained on the table.

In an interview Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Netanyahu said that the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services “are working so close together that it’s not that I’m going to present new information, but I think it’s a good thing to have the opportunity to sit with our good friend President Trump and to hear what he has in mind, because I think in many ways it’s his decision.”

“But let me say one thing, and I think that I should say it very, very clearly: If Iran attacks Israel, either directly or through proxies, either with ballistic missiles or UAVs or killer drones, it will make a terrible mistake, because our response, Israel’s response, will be very, very forceful,” Netanyahu said.

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