President Donald Trump expressed discontent with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reported forthcoming warnings regarding Iranian nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain, dismissing the issue as “not a big problem” in a sharp public split hours ahead of their high-stakes Oval Office meeting.

“I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved [in Iran],” Trump alleged in an interview on Fox News on Tuesday morning. 

Netanyahu is reportedly expected to brief Trump on Iran’s activities at Pickaxe Mountain during their meeting, attempting to demonstrate that Tehran is undermining diplomatic talks by relocating its nuclear infrastructure underground. 

Commenting on reports that Netanyahu intends to raise with him Israeli intelligence demonstrating that Iran moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickaxe following the 12-day war in June 2025, Trump said: “Why don’t you [Netanyahu] just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world? I know exactly what’s happening at Pickaxe, it’s not a big problem.” Trump has previously downplayed such reports, saying earlier this month that the U.S. has not seen evidence of nuclear activity at the site. 

Trump insisted on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence is monitoring Pickaxe Mountain closely, while renewing threats to launch military strikes if a diplomatic agreement falls through.

“We have the greatest cameras in the world focused on it,” Trump said. “We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal … We’ll take it out very easily.”

The complex, which Tehran is believed to have begun constructing in 2020, is located roughly a mile south of Iran’s primary Natanz nuclear facility, a site struck multiple times during the 12-day war. 

While Trump has previously noted that Pickaxe Mountain was spared amid the current U.S.-Iran war due to a lack of evidence that nuclear enrichment was taking place there, he warned during a meeting last week with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that the U.S. could target the area “pretty soon.”

Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting marks the eighth between Trump and Netanyahu during Trump’s second term, and their first face-to-face sit-down since the current Iran war began in February. Once closely aligned, the two leaders enter the talks divided over key strategic decisions, including how to conclude the war and Trump’s proposed sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.