US President Donald Trump has reportedly decided to cut off direct contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a report said Thursday.
Yanir Cozin, a correspondent for Israeli Army Radio, said in a post on his X account that Trump made the decision after close associates told Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer that “the president believes that Netanyahu is manipulating him.”
🚨🇺🇸🇮🇱 BREAKING: Israeli Army Radio reports that President Trump has decided to ‘CUT CONTACT’ with Netanyahu, stating that Netanyahu and his associates act ‘arrogant’ and try to push around the President
Close associates of Trump told Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron… pic.twitter.com/50W7yCYwIp
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) May 8, 2025
An Israeli official added that Dermer’s tone during recent discussions with senior Republican figures about what Trump should do “was seen as arrogant and unhelpful.”
The official said that people around Trump told him that “Netanyahu was manipulating him.”
“There is nothing Trump hates more than being portrayed as a fool or someone being played. That’s why he decided to cut contact with Netanyahu,” the official added.
Cozin pointed to the Israeli government’s “failure to present a concrete plan and timeline” regarding Iran and Yemen as a source of the worsening US-Israel relationship.
The Army Radio correspondent also highlighted that the Netanyahu government has failed to offer a concrete proposal on Gaza.
Meanwhile, Axios reported that Trump met Dermer on Thursday and discussed the nuclear talks with Iran and the war in Gaza, according to two sources briefed on the meeting.
The meeting at the White House, which was not made public by the US or the Zionist entity, took place ahead of the fourth round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran on Sunday in Muscat and Trump’s trip to the Middle East starting on Monday.
Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE on this trip but will skip the Zionist entity.
Source: Agencies
