New book claims Tucker Carlson privately President Trump to condemn Netanyahu over Gaza war, while Trump ripped Israel’s prime minister as a “conman.”By World Israel News StaffA new book written by a pair of New York Times reporters claims that President Donald Trump privately called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “con man” and assured Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk in an Oval Office meeting that the US would not go to war with Iran, months before he ultimately ordered strikes against the Islamic Republic.The account appears in Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, a forthcoming book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on Trump’s second term. The book is set for US publication on Tuesday.According to excerpts reported multiple outlets, Trump used one of the harshest insults in his political vocabulary for Netanyahu during a period of tension over Israel’s push for more aggressive action against Iran.The book says Trump initially wanted “no part of Netanyahu’s war with Iran,” but later changed course after Netanyahu presented Israel’s arguments in a Situation Room meeting.In an earlier Oval Office meeting with Carlson and Musk, Trump was pressed over the danger that a broader confrontation with Iran would damage his presidency.Carlson, who had been critical of Israel and Netanyahu, warned Trump that Israel and its supporters were trying to pull him into a conflict.“They want you to go to war with Iran,” Carlson said, according to the book.“We’re not doing that,” Trump replied.The meeting placed Carlson, one of the most influential anti-interventionist voices on the American right, inside Trump’s effort to manage a divided conservative base. Haberman and Swan write that Trump sought Carlson’s advice because he believed the former Fox News host still held sway with a significant part of his movement.The book also says Trump told Carlson, “I don’t think there’s ever been an American president as powerful as I am.”“Certainly not since FDR,” Carlson responded. “Really, the only thing that could wreck it is war with Iran.”The book claims Trump was both disturbed and captivated by the effects of Israel’s September 2024 pager attack against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.According to the book, Trump described the injuries in graphic terms during the Oval Office meeting with Musk and Carlson, saying one survivor “looked like a great white shark came and just took a chunk out of him. It was like a shark bite. It was horrible.”He reportedly repeated, “It’s horrible, horrible!”Haberman and Swan write that Trump was struck by what he saw as both the ingenuity and recklessness of the operation. The book says he was shocked by “the indiscriminate nature” of the blasts, while also fascinated by the method of attack.Musk, meanwhile, was described as fixated on a golden pager Netanyahu had given Trump as a gift, according to the account.The book has already prompted concern inside the White House because of its detailed reconstruction of sensitive discussions. Axios reported that some officials feared the authors may have obtained recordings of Situation Room meetings, though the outlet noted that such scenes can also be reconstructed through interviews with participants and people briefed on the conversations.“We’re afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded,” an administration source told Axios. “And we have no idea which ones.”Axios reported that Haberman and Swan declined to comment on the speculation.The post Trump called Netanyahu a ‘conman,’ vowed not to get involved in Iran war – report appeared first on World Israel News.