Bibi On Board: Trump’s Fraught Netanyahu Meeting

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Stassi is back.

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Most people know me from Vanderpump Rules.

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But I'm a mom, a wife, a podcaster.

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I'm traumatized by reality TV, but I can't stay away from it.

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It's like if they're not on your payroll, they don't get to be in your life.

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Wow.

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Reality has never been this real.

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Not everyone is built for this.

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Am I here to ice anyone else?

**Patrick Rivel** (0:18)
But when you said that.

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Don't cut me off.

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This time I get to do it on my turn.

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I showed up for you.

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What could go wrong?

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House of Stassi, Wednesdays at 10 on TV reform and now streaming on Hulu.

**Brad Mielke** (0:30)
It's Wednesday, July 29th and the two closest allies in the Iran War are on rockier ground than ever. We start here.
President Trump calls Benjamin Netanyahu's motives into question.

**Mary Bruce** (0:44)
It is clear that the president has some real frustrations with Netanyahu.

**Brad Mielke** (0:47)
Five months into this conflict, the two finally came face to face. We'll break down the aftermath. This wasn't the only high stakes meeting in the Oval Office.

**Patrick Rivel** (0:55)
President Trump seems to be coming around to a much more positive view of Zelenskyy.

**Brad Mielke** (1:00)
Why Trump and perhaps the broader MAGA base are changing the tone around Ukraine and a deadly earthquake ricochets through Japan.

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There could be up to 30 people trapped inside.

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How a day out at the mall left dozens stranded. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Mielke.
Yesterday marked five months since the start of the war in Iran. Remember, President Trump had originally predicted four or five weeks. At the time, his critics said he had been dog walked into this war by Israel. That Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sold him on a war that would be quick and easy. That has clearly not been the case.
Over the last several weeks, Trump has found himself unable to restart traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. The regime there is still in power, so he's been unable to secure Iran's nuclear material. Trump maintains the war is going well, and that this has always been about America's interests, no one else's. But when asked about Netanyahu, he's also seemed more irritable. Well, yesterday, for the first time since this conflict started, Netanyahu made his way to Washington. It was actually part of a big day revolving around remembrances of Senator Lindsey Graham, so several world leaders were in town. But this meeting with Netanyahu was the one everyone was following. ABC's chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce is at the West Wing right now. So Mary, it seemed unclear this meeting would even happen for a second, or at least that Trump would be in a welcoming mood for it.

**Mary Bruce** (2:30)
Yeah, and look, this was, as you said, the first time that they had come face to face in Washington since the war began, since the war that they started together began. But since then, their relationship really has hit a rocky patch. I mean, just listen to the president's tone earlier yesterday. He really bristled when in an interview with Fox, he was asked about the fact that Netanyahu was bringing Trump intelligence, showing that Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear capabilities.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:56)
Iran is actively constructing and fortifying Pickaxe Mountain.

**SPEAKER_12** (3:00)
How will we respond?

**SPEAKER_13** (3:01)
Well, I don't need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved. I mean, I don't necessarily. We have the finest because of the Space Force. We have the greatest cameras in the world focused on. We know exactly what's going on.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:15)
But no, I heard Bibi announce that.

**SPEAKER_13** (3:17)
I said, why don't you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world? I know exactly what's going on at Pickaxe. It's not a big problem.

**Mary Bruce** (3:24)
It is clear that the president has some real frustrations with Netanyahu, and obviously they both are facing their own political pressures around the war. President Trump has obviously been looking for an off ramp, one that is still not quite clear. The president is facing political pressures here at home as gas prices spike, and we see the economic pressures surrounding this war, especially with the midterms approaching. And Netanyahu is also facing his own pressures at home with his own election looming.

**Brad Mielke** (3:51)