{"id":8247,"date":"2026-07-28T15:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8247"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:39:24","slug":"netanyahu-returns-to-a-skeptical-trump-as-iran-war-grinds-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8247","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu returns to a skeptical Trump as Iran war grinds on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s promises of a quick victory have given way to a prolonged conflict and growing frustration in the Oval Office.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Lawmakers mourn Lindsey Graham ahead of his funeral at Washington National Cathedral<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 29. (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Donald Trump on Tuesday in what <\/b>was set to be a tense encounter, as the U.S. leader seeks a path to end the war against Iran.<\/p>\n

It was the leaders\u2019 first in-person meeting since they launched the joint offensive in February<\/a>, after Netanyahu convinced Trump the time was right for regime change in Tehran. Since then, a war that was promised to last weeks has dragged on for five months. Hard-line members<\/a> of the old Iranian regime have entrenched their rule. And there is no clear exit path as Iran continues to throttle shipping through a vital chokepoint, driving up global energy prices.<\/p>\n

Trump has signaled daylight with Netanyahu, saying they were largely \u2014 but not totally \u2014 aligned on Iran as he seeks a diplomatic path forward<\/a> despite Israeli desires to press a new offensive. In the United States, the war has been increasingly unpopular with the middle-of-the-road voters who will determine control of Congress in November, as gas prices have surged. Netanyahu, meanwhile, faces October elections and has long told his voters that only he can manage close U.S. relations. A fractured relationship with Trump is a danger to him.<\/p>\n

Hours before the meeting, Trump flashed irritation at Israeli reports that Netanyahu planned to show him intelligence about alleged new Iranian activity at Pickaxe Mountain, an underground site believed to be a hard-to-reach shelter for Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard Bibi announce that,\u201d Trump told Fox & Friends on Tuesday, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname. \u201cI said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Emblematic of Trump\u2019s increasingly dismissive attitude, he also wants to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets<\/a> to Turkey and may also allow Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear power<\/a>, dismissing Israeli concerns that each choice could worsen their security situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a little difference, but pretty close,\u201d Trump said Monday about Netanyahu\u2019s approach to Tehran. \u201cIran took a beating over the last 14 days and they asked us very nicely, \u2018Please stop, let\u2019s meet,\u2019 and that\u2019s where we are right now. We\u2019ll see what happens. If we don\u2019t make a deal, we go back to the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that Israel \u201cwouldn\u2019t survive without us,\u201d Trump said that \u201cnobody tells me what we should be selling or not. Turkey has been a tremendous ally for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Tuesday, Netanyahu had already met with Trump in the White House seven times this term<\/a>, more than any other world leader. Ahead of the war with Iran, the Israeli leader successfully appealed<\/a> to Trump\u2019s sense of himself as a historic figure \u2014 one who could finally resolve the 47-year challenge of Iran\u2019s theocratic leadership.<\/p>\n

But the regime in Tehran has proved far more durable than Netanyahu suggested, leading to frustration in the Oval Office. Days into the conflict, Trump noted the intense Israeli attacks on senior Iranian leadership killed many of the people Washington had identified as potentially more moderate alternatives.<\/p>

Read more Lindsey Graham\u2019s death leaves Trump reflecting on his own mortality<\/a><\/p>\n

On Monday, Trump referred to Netanyahu in the past tense, perhaps forecasting his expectation for the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cBibi has been great. I\u2019m not going to say \u2014 he was a wartime prime minister. He did very well together,\u201d Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu traveled this week to Washington for the Trump meeting and to attend the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), a firm ally of Israel who favored maximum military force against Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne way or the other, they have to end their nuclear program,\u201d Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday<\/a>, ahead of his trip to the United States.<\/p>\n

Trump has taken an on-again, off-again approach to diplomacy with Iran, signing an interim deal with Tehran last month to reopen the Strait of Hormuz that collapsed within weeks and plunged the two sides into a renewed round of fighting.<\/p>\n

But neither side appears to favor a return to full-out war. Iranian leaders are battered by the economic pressure of a naval blockade and want to rebuild after months of U.S. airstrikes. Washington, meanwhile, is confronting dwindling stockpiles of advanced air defense missiles that have been eroded by Iran\u2019s far cheaper drones.<\/p>\n

Still, the landing path for a negotiated deal appears narrow. Iranian leaders have little desire to give up the nuclear program that they proved they can defend. And they see the ticking clock to the U.S. midterm elections in November, conscious that the economic pain of high energy prices will only add to their leverage over time.<\/p>\n

Trump also met Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has swung into the U.S. leader\u2019s good graces following a rocky resumption of the relationship last year. Zelensky has noted that Russia has been supplying assistance to Iran over the course of this year\u2019s conflict, as the two wars increasingly intertwine.<\/p>\n

Trump kept both meetings off-camera, a shift from earlier encounters in which leaders have needed to play for public consumption as Trump has entertained questions from the media. The lower-profile decision had the effect of depriving Netanyahu of a photo op for his reelection campaign \u2014 and also dampened potential flare-ups with Zelensky, whose first trip to the Oval Office last year was derailed by an argument with Trump that led to his ejection from the White House.<\/p>\n

Like Netanyahu, Zelensky traveled to Washington to pay respects to Graham, who had just returned from a visit to Kyiv when he died of an aortic dissection<\/a> earlier this month. Trump ally and MAGA die-hard Laura Loomer has been on a high-profile visit to Ukraine following years in which she echoed Russian talking points about the Ukraine war, a notable change of heart that she has said she will take back to Trump.<\/p>

Read more Florida to conduct rare double execution on Tuesday<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s promises of a quick victory have given way to a prolonged conflict and growing frustration in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nNetanyahu returns to a skeptical Trump as Iran war grinds on - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8247\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Netanyahu returns to a skeptical Trump as Iran war grinds on - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Israel\u2019s promises of a quick victory have given way to a prolonged conflict and growing frustration in the Oval Office.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8247\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T15:39:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4b9d13a1ee436ec2e0037da28d3701aa-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Netanyahu returns to a skeptical Trump as Iran war grinds on\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T15:39:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247\"},\"wordCount\":1067,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/97ae6b03ae594be7c8e685e8d21694ad-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8247\",\"name\":\"Netanyahu returns to a skeptical Trump as Iran war grinds on - 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