Donald Trump lashed out at Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday before vowing to destroy Iran‘s nuclear facility buried deep inside a mountain.
The President admonished the Israeli leader for telling reporters that he would present Trump with evidence that Iran is still developing its nuclear program deep inside a facility known as Pickaxe Mountain.
‘Well, I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,’ Trump told Fox News ahead of his Oval Office meeting with Netanyahu.
Trump then warned Netanyahu not to air grievances in public and to raise them with him privately instead.
‘I heard BB announce that. I said, “Why didn’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world.”‘
Trump also vowed to destroy the secret facility if Iran did not agree to make a deal to abandon their nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
‘I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe. It’s not a big problem. We took out their nuclear site, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal,’ Trump added.
Pickaxe Mountain, known in Farsi as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, is a tunnel complex Iran has been carving into a mountainside near its Natanz enrichment site. It is buried so deep that weapons experts doubt even America’s most powerful bunker-buster could reach it.
Donald Trump lashed out at Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday before vowing to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility buried deep inside a mountain
Trump: ‘I heard BB announce that. I said, “Why didn’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world”‘
Aerial photo of Pickaxe Mountain – Iran’s secret nuclear facility
Netanyahu is visiting Washington for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, a vocal public defender and GOP advocate for Israel.
The intelligence Netanyahu is bringing to Trump reportedly centers on the movement of centrifuges into the complex, which Israel says happened shortly after the US and Iran signed their memorandum of understanding.
Iran has denied that any nuclear facility exists at the site, as it did when US outlets first reported accelerated construction there in 2025.
Trump has said the site was spared during the war because there was not enough proof Iran was using it for nuclear work.
However, the President told reporters last week that Tehran may have moved centrifuges in and that it would not matter without the uranium to go with them.
The current round of fighting began in early July after a ceasefire reached in mid-June collapsed, and US strikes paused on Friday following 13 consecutive nights of bombing.
Iran closed off the Persian Gulf waterway at the start of the war by firing on tankers and freighters, and daily crossings had fallen roughly 70 percent while oil prices skyrocketing to nearly $100 a barrel.
During this time, Trump also ordered US forces to disable tankers bound for Kharg Island and threatened to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time a ship was attacked.
The regime responded by launching suicide drones and ballistic missiles at American bases in the Middle East, resulting in the deaths of at least four US troops.
