“I’m not happy with Israel. When I say, ‘OK now you have 12 hours’, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either.”
Unprompted, Trump added: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing. Do you understand that?”
Netanyahu’s office brushed aside the criticism, saying in the aforementioned statement that Trump expressed his appreciation for Israel during a phone call with Netanyahu, along with his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire.
“Following President Trump’s conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel refrained from additional attacks,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Later, aboard Air Force One bound for Europe, Trump struck a more conciliatory tone, and thanked Netanyahu for showing restraint.
“Israel, as you know, turned back. They didn’t do that raid this morning, fortunately. That was a big thing – [I] appreciate it,” Trump said.
“They had a lot of planes going, and they were going to do something, and they didn’t do it, and we’re happy about that … The ceasefire is very much in effect, and I think we’re going to keep it there for a long time.”
But the president’s fiery rhetoric was not limited to Israel and Iran. He also lashed out at the major US news networks for what he said was poor coverage of American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on the weekend.
Trump insists the sites were destroyed and is unhappy that journalists are querying the extent of the damage, which is yet to be confirmed by the Pentagon or the international nuclear watchdog.
“All night long they’re trying to say: well, maybe it wasn’t really as demolished as we thought,” Trump said. “It was demolished. You take a look at the pinpricks, and you see: that place is gone.”
Loading
“I think CNN ought to apologise to the pilots of the B-2s [bomber planes]. I think MSDNC ought to apologise,” Trump said, referring to MSNBC, a left-of-centre channel.
“I think these guys, these networks and these cable networks, are real losers. You really are. You’re real losers. You’re gutless losers. I say that to CNN because I watch it – I have no choice, I’ve got to watch that garbage, it’s all garbage, it’s all fake news.”
Trump then attacked Brian Roberts, the head of NBC parent company Comcast, as “a weak, pathetic disgrace”.
The president is scheduled to arrive at the NATO summit on Tuesday evening, local time, and attend a social dinner with other world leaders. He will then participate in official sessions on Wednesday and return home to Washington that evening.
