expected to present evidence<\/a> that Iran is pursuing nuclear technology at its subterranean Pickaxe Mountain site.<\/p>\nBut, despite the prickly statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the nearly 90-minute Oval Office sitdown was \u201cpositive and productive.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Trump publicly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday. REUTERS<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the White House for a meeting with US President Donald Trump on July 28, 2026. Jemal Countess\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Netanyahu arrived and departed via a side entrance to the West Wing, avoiding questions from the media. Also present on the US side were Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and chief of staff Susie Wiles.<\/p>\n
Trump reacted harshly Tuesday morning when asked about the Israeli leader\u2019s visit and his plans to share information about Pickaxe Mountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I don\u2019t need Bibi to tell me that.\u00a0Bibi\u00a0is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,\u201d Trump told \u201cFox & Friends\u201d when asked about\u00a0the\u00a0expectation\u00a0Netanyahu will bring up Pickaxe Mountain\u00a0ahead of an Oval Office meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know exactly what\u2019s going on. But no, I heard Bibi announce that. I said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?’\u201d the president went on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know exactly what\u2019s going on at Pickaxe. It\u2019s not a big problem. We took out their nuclear site, and we\u2019ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don\u2019t make a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump cited\u00a0satellite technology being used by the US to study the site, located about 120 miles south of Tehran.<\/p>\n
Debate intensifies as President Donald Trump announces that Pickaxe Mountain, which is alleged to house an underground Iranian nuclear facility, will be targeted. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Israel has intelligence indicating that\u00a0Iran has\u00a0moved nuclear centrifuges to the complex some\u00a0300 feet beneath the Kolang Mountain, not far from the Natanz nuclear\u00a0facility, which\u00a0the US bombed in June 2025.<\/p>\n
Underpinning Netanyahu\u2019s expected briefing to Trump are concerns that Iran is not negotiating in good faith with the US,\u00a0The Post previously reported.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Israeli\u00a0leader is also expected to present evidence that Iran has been rapidly rebuilding its missile capabilities after joint attacks on the Islamic Republic earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donald Trump meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Last week, Trump was reportedly mulling a major escalation in the military campaign against Iran, which resumed earlier this month for nearly two weeks after repeated attacks by Tehran on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The president abruptly paused the strikes July 24 after talks began to rekindle.\u00a0Iran initially denied being in direct talks with the US, but Trump insists they are ongoing and have been \u201cgood talks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some reason, we can be in the midst of a beautiful discussion, and they\u2019ll come out and say \u2018We\u2019re not talking or we didn\u2019t discuss nuclear.\u2019 Well,\u00a0that\u2019s all we discussed because they\u2019ll never have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey understand that, and we have had some very good talks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump listens as Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during an event. AP Photo\/Alex Brandon<\/p>\n
Despite previously threatening to attack bridges and power plants in Iran, Trump signaled that he is very uneasy about ever ordering strikes on civilian infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t make a deal, then I go\u00a0back,\u00a0and I\u00a0finish the job.\u00a0But\u00a0that\u2019s going to take them forever to rebuild,\u201d the president riffed. \u201cI could take out most of their bridges in less than an hour, less than an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really decimates a country. So those are the big things. And then there\u2019s always the\u00a0desalination\u00a0plants, and who am I hurting there? I\u2019m hurting the people, so I\u2019m not looking to do that. I just want, very simply, they cannot have a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s dig at Netanyahu comes amid mounting tensions between the two leaders over Iran and other Middle East issues.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu is visiting Washington,\u00a0DC,\u00a0to attend a Tuesday afternoon memorial service\u00a0for\u00a0the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met behind closed doors at the White House…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3895,153,116479,14670,9,11,10,87,58],"class_list":["post-307893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-fox-and-friends","tag-iran","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}