Trump calls his Iran talk with Netanyahu 'very good' as Axios reports a frank call

US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that Iran was on the agenda. The Times of Israel reported that Trump described the conversation as a "very good talk" when questioned by reporters, but would not go into what was said beyond acknowledging that Iran came up. According to that report, the call took place the day before Trump's remarks.

Several Hebrew-language outlets carried the president's comments within minutes of one another. N12's foreign desk and News.co.il both said Trump was asked about the call and what it covered, and both quoted him as saying it was a good conversation in which the two men talked about Iran. Ynet and Abu Ali Express published the same remark, with Abu Ali Express rendering it as a very good call.

Where Trump was speaking

According to a photo caption published by The Times of Israel, Trump took reporters' questions on November 1, 2026, after arriving on Air Force One at Dubuque Regional Airport in Dubuque, Iowa. He was on his way to a campaign rally. Two of the Israeli outlets credited their images of the moment to the Reuters news agency.

A different account from Axios

Before Trump spoke publicly, the US news site Axios had already reported on the call. Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist who covers diplomacy for Axios, wrote on X that Trump and Netanyahu had a frank call about the negotiations between the United States and Iran and about the next moves in the war. In diplomatic language, "frank" usually signals that the two sides spoke openly and did not fully agree.

The Times of Israel, summarising the Axios story, said the conversation was described as tense. In that account, Trump told Netanyahu he wanted to give the negotiations with Iran a chance to succeed, while Netanyahu pressed for an imminent strike on Iran. Neither leader has publicly confirmed that characterisation, and Trump's own description of the call as good, or very good, does not match it. Readers should treat the two versions as separate accounts: one from the president himself, the other from Axios's reporting.

The background to the call

The reports refer to a set of talks between Washington and Tehran and to an ongoing war, but they do not set out the details of either. Ravid's post links the two subjects, describing the call as covering both the negotiations and what happens next in the war.

On the same day, The Times of Israel's live coverage included a report that the naval arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the branch of Iran's armed forces that answers to the country's supreme leader rather than to the regular military, said two tankers had exploded after striking mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open sea and is a major route for oil shipping. The reports do not connect that incident to the Trump and Netanyahu call, and this article does not either.

The call also comes during an Israeli election campaign. The Times of Israel is running live coverage of the 2026 Israeli election, in which Netanyahu is a candidate, and Trump himself was travelling to a campaign event in the United States when he made his remarks.

How the story was reported

Six organisations reported on the call. The Axios story, flagged by Ravid, came first and focused on the substance and tone of the conversation. Trump's on-camera confirmation followed several hours later and was picked up quickly by Israeli news channels on Telegram, including N12, Ynet, News.co.il and Abu Ali Express, as well as by The Times of Israel. Those Hebrew outlets reported only the president's brief remark and did not add detail about what was discussed.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports quotes the Israeli Prime Minister's Office or Netanyahu himself on the call, so there is no Israeli account of what was said.
• The claim that Netanyahu pushed for an imminent strike on Iran rests on Axios's reporting, as summarised by The Times of Israel. It has not been confirmed by either government in the material available.
• Trump declined to describe the content of the conversation beyond saying Iran was discussed. He did not address the Axios account.
• The reports do not say where the US-Iran negotiations stand, who is taking part, or what the next moves in the war referred to by Axios might be.
• No outcome or decision from the call has been announced.