President Trump gave gushing praise to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday — denying reported friction with his counterpart and vowing to “knock the hell out of” Iran if it rebuilds its nuclear program.
“I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re gonna have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them,” Trump said while welcoming Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.
“But hopefully that’s not happening. I heard Iran wants to make a deal. They want to make a deal — that’s much smarter. You know, they could have made a deal the last time before we went through a big attack on them, and they decided not to make a deal. They wish they made that deal.”
Trump meets with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. AP
Trump described the meeting as focused on five major issues, including the implementation of the Trump-brokered October peace deal in Gaza and improving Israeli relations with the new Syrian government.
Once the doors closed for private talks, Netanyahu flattered Trump by announcing that he would bestow upon him the “Israel Prize,” which recognizes cultural achievements in literature, the arts, Jewish studies and other areas.
“We decided to break a convention… to award the Israel Prize, which, in almost our 80 years, we’ve never awarded it to a non-Israeli, and we’re going to award it this year to President Trump,” Netanyahu told reporters afterward.
Gaza Phase Two ‘Pretty Soon’
The second phase of the Gaza peace deal should begin “as quickly as we can,” but “there has to be a disarming of Hamas,” Trump said after meeting with Netanyah.
The second phase, following an initial cease-fire and Israel troop pullback, would allow for reconstruction to begin “pretty soon,” added Trump, who said “we’re already starting certain things” such as sanitation.
Trump focused heavily on Hamas disarmament amid reported unease among US officials about Netanyahu’s commitment to keeping the deal on track.
A man looks at flames rising from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. AP
The president claimed that countries once friendly with the terrorist group would squash it in Gaza if Hamas won’t relinquish control. “We talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament, and they’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said after the private portion of his meeting with Netanyahu.
“If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do — they agreed to it — then there will be hell to pay for them, and we don’t want that,” Trump said.
“Countries that were with them… agreed that they would disarm. And now if they say they’re going to disarm, that’s fine. If they say they’re not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out.”
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Trump did not specify which countries would do that, though a proposed international peacekeeping force in Gaza was expected to include contributions from Egypt and Qatar.
“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel’s doing. I’m concerned about what other people are doing, or maybe aren’t doing,” he said, before qualifying that remark with tepid criticism of Israel’s continued strikes inside Gaza.
“Sometimes they [Israel] don’t understand when somebody violates something that you want to give them a second chance — we hope we’ll give them a couple of second chances — but no, Israel has lived up to the plan 100%.”
Trump did not give priority in his remarks to Israeli insistence on Hamas scouring the wreckage of the Gaza Strip to locate the remains of deceased Israeli hostages, though he did express sensitivity on that point and took a break from his lunch with Netanyahu to introduce reporters to the parents of one still-missing soldier.
Iran ‘looking at other sites’ for nuke program
Trump threatened to dispatch more B-2 stealth bombers to strike Iran — as he did to support Israel in its 12-day attack in June — while saying he’s received word that Tehran is scouting new sites to reconstruct its nuclear program.
“Usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Trump said.
“I’m hearing that they’re not nuclear yet — but maybe nuclear too. The sites were obliterated, but they’re looking at other sites. That’s what I’ve heard. They’re looking.”
“They have other places they can go,” he said. “And if they’re doing that, they’re making a big mistake. There’s no reason for them to do it.”
Trump added: “I hope they’re not doing it, because we don’t want to waste the fuel on a B-2, it’s a 37-hour trip, both ways. I don’t want to waste a lot of fuel.”
Israeli air defense systems are activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv early on June 18, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
Trump said that he also would endorse Israeli airstrikes if Iran continues to develop its ballistic missile technology.
“If they will continue with missiles? Yes. If nuclear, fast. Okay? One will be ‘yes, absolutely,’ the other was, ‘we’ll do it immediately,’” Trump replied.
Pardon ‘on its way’
Trump insisted that his relationship with Netanyahu was strong — publishing back on an Axios report that said his administration was souring on the PM.
“I don’t think it could be better. We just won a big war together,” he said, referring to the 12-day June conflict with Iran.
Trump even claimed he had secured from Israeli President Isaac Herzog an agreement to pardon the longtime leader to head off corruption allegations.
“He’s a wartime prime minister who is a hero. How do you not give a pardon? … I spoke to the president, and he tells me it’s on its way,” Trump said.
Herzog’s office quickly denied he made any such commitment to Trump.
“The relationship’s been extraordinary,” Trump told the press.
“Bibi is a strong man. He can be very difficult on occasion, but you need a strong man. If you had a weak man, you wouldn’t have Israel right now. Israel, with most other leaders, would not exist today. They would not exist, and now they’re stronger than ever.”