Report: Netanyahu struggling with Trump policies on Iran, Middle East

Behind closed doors, Netanyahu is increasingly frustrated with Trump’s Middle East policies.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly “frustrated” with many of President Donald Trump’s policies regarding the Iranian nuclear deal and other Middle Eastern regional issues,.

Despite maintaining a united front in public, with Trump saying that he and Netanyahu are “on the same side of every issue,” the Israeli premier has told his confidants that he is increasingly concerned that he and Trump are not aligned on important issues, Israel Hayom reported.

“While Trump says all the right things during their meetings and phone calls, particularly on Iran and Syria, his practical steps do not align with those statements,” the outlet reported Netanyahu as saying to his trusted advisors.

Netanyahu is particularly concerned with the prospect of a new nuclear deal between the U.S and Iran, which appears to be a repackaging of the 2015 JCPOA agreement that Jerusalem vehemently opposed at the time.

Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, has insinuated in interviews that Iran would be permitted to continue enriching uranium for civilian purposes – a caveat that is particularly alarming to the Jewish state.

“A real deal that works is one that removes Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said in a speech last week at the Jewish News Syndicate conference in Jerusalem.

“A bad deal is worse than no deal,” he declared.

Netanyahu is also worried about Trump’s public praise of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“President Erdogan is a friend of mine. He’s a guy I like, respect,” Trump said in January 2025, adding that the Turkish leader is a “very smart guy.”

For years, Erdogan has been extremely hostile towards the State of Israel, with his antisemitic rhetoric ramping up after the October 7th massacres.

Erdogan recently called Netanyahu a “psychopath” and a “blood-sucking vampire.”