U.S. Presidents ‘Deeply Frustrated’ With Netanyahu: A Retrospective.

This essay appeared in the June 4, 2026 edition of UNFTR’s premium newsletter. Become a UNFTR member to receive our bonus newsletter each week and for other perks.

Two and a half years into the genocide in Gaza and with the U.S. war of choice in Iran continuing unabated (a ceasefire isn’t a ceasefire if nobody is ceasing fire), you’ve likely become numb to the reports of successive U.S. presidents being so “frustrated” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they’ve aired their grievances during expletive-laden calls seemingly intended to assure Americans that our guy(s) is standing up to a particularly immovable foreign ally.

These dispatches take various forms but disproportionately are filtered through the U.S. security apparatus by Barak Ravid, an Axios reporter who once served as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Each one can be read through a very specific lens, as they often drop amid U.S.-led or -facilitated negotiations over multiple ceasefires or humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which continues to face attacks from Israeli forces amid a curbing of aid, according to human rights groups.

But in reading many of these leaks to Axios and other outlets, a common theme emerges: U.S. presidents allegedly become deeply flabbergasted by Netanyahu’s resistance to any deals and general recalcitrance, resulting in them venting their frustration directly to Israel’s far-right PM and, lest we forget, an international war crimes fugitive.

Such reports have become so ubiquitous that every subsequent leak appears to generate more of an eye-roll from skeptical Americans than even modest appreciation for the president, whether it be Joe Biden or Donald Trump, for taking an ostensibly principled stand. The fact that nothing materially changes politically or diplomatically amid these routine leaks means they ring ever more hollow with each successive release.

The latest incarnation of this revolving storyline came June 1 when—guess who—Ravid published his latest grievance dump from Trump, who purportedly told Netanyahu that he’s “fucking crazy” and that he’d “be in prison” if it weren’t for Trump. The well-timed release of the rant comes as Trump continues to fail to secure a deal with Iran to ultimately end the war, but for now, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which had no militaristic impediments prior to Trump starting the war on Feb. 28.

After this latest report, we attempted to quantify just how ubiquitous they actually are, and to what extent they share similarities.

According to our analysis, the first revelation of any frustration with Israel and Netanyahu specifically that we could find came Dec. 28, 2023, one day prior to the start of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice—a period in which U.S. diplomats and national security officials staunchly defended Israel, rejecting out of hand any and all allegations brought by South Africa.

The analysis found at least seven reported accounts in which either Biden or Trump were said to have become, at various levels, exasperated by Netanyahu. Of these, six appear to be exclusively reported by Axios, with the other coming from NBC News in February 2024. Nearly all have characterized either Biden or Trump as “frustrated” or having “vented” such feelings.

Some of the leaks attempt to project the Oval Office holder as deeply indignant. The first of these came in the aforementioned NBC News article in which it was reported that Biden, on at least three occasions, referred to Netanyahu as an “asshole.”

In April of 2024, Axios wrote that “the temperature at the White House is ‘very high’” and that Biden’s frustration had given way to “outrage” following the killing of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza by Israel.

By the summer of that year, Biden had allegedly become so aggrieved that he engaged in a “tough” call with Netanyahu, demanding he “stop escalating tensions in the region” and work his way toward a ceasefire. Naturally, the article noted that Biden “and his top aides” had become—wait for it—”deeply frustrated” with Israel’s recent actions, specifically assassinations in Lebanon and Iran.

The narrative continued into Trump’s second term as president, starting in 2025, with Axios reporting that Trump (lol) “has been frustrated by the ongoing war in Gaza,” which was followed by an October 2025 piece in which Trump was said to have told Netanyahu that “you’re always so fucking negative,” which was followed by a December 2025 article alleging the Trump White House “scolded” Netanyahu. And stop me if you’ve heard this before, but several White House officials, including Secretary of State/National Security Advisor Marco Rubio and the Middle East negotiating duo of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were “very frustrated” with Netanyahu.

Critically, we also found that, in the aftermath of this hamster wheel of dispatches, not only did Israel not suffer any consequences, but it was often rewarded or protected by the U.S. government.

• For instance, eight days after it was reported that Biden called Netanyahu an “asshole,” the U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
• In the same month that Biden expressed outrage over the killing of the WCK aid workers, Biden signed a foreign aid package into law that, along with providing military assistance to Ukraine, also funneled $15 billion in military support to Israel.
• Months after Bob Woodward reported that Biden described Netanyahu as a “fucking liar,” the State Department informed Congress of an $8 billion weapons sale to Israel—a package that NBC noted “would add to a record of at least $17.9 billion in military aid that the U.S. has provided Israel” since the Gaza genocide began.
• Not to be outdone, weeks after the first article about Trump’s “frustration” was aired in May 2025, the United States vetoed yet another UN Security Council resolution for a Gaza ceasefire—a resolution that garnered support from 14 out of 15 council members.

Despite two U.S. presidents vacillating between various disturbed emotions in dealing with Netanyahu, the far-right PM ultimately succeeded in convincing the United States to continue funding and facilitating the war of annihilation in Gaza and the eventual war with Iran.

Yet somehow, the corporate media continues to treat such revelations as some sort of proof that Israel isn’t running roughshod over the United States and its leaders. The facts clearly show the opposite is true. They’ll argue semantics—that there’s nuance and any relationship is “complicated.” What they won’t admit is that these strategic leaks are used for a very distinct purpose: to ostensibly imply that U.S. leaders can stand on principle, that red lines do exist, and there’s a threshold for how far Israel and Netanyahu can push.

You know what else is clear? We’re all deeply frustrated, too—at Netanyahu, at the United States’ role in the genocide of Palestinians and the U.S.-Israel war of choice in Iran, which has been an abject failure. How about they write that article?

Image Source

• The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Changes were made.