Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his displeasure to President Donald Trump about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's anti-Israel rhetoric, Israel and U.S. officials told Axios.

Netanyahu also asked Trump to refrain from selling weapons systems that would help Turkey modernize its air force.

"Netanyahu made an ask and the president heard him," a U.S. official said.

"So the president might pass on [to Erdogan] the message like, 'Hey, can you just go a little easy on this.' But it is what it is," a U.S. official told Axios.

Erdogan recently called Zionism "a genocidal ideology" while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview that Israel's government was "a burden that humanity can no longer bear."

Trump is set to meet with Erdogan during the NATO summit this week in Ankara.

They are set to discuss a $700 million deal for new engines for Turkey's fighter jets, and the possibility of Turkey reentering the F-35 program.

Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program during the first Trump administration after it purchased Russia's S-400 air defense system, according to Axios.

Vice President JD Vance said the Pentagon was reviewing whether it could sell F-35s to Turkey.

"There are certain things that we have to certify ​have happened ... ​in ⁠order to comply with American ​law. The president ​has ⁠asked us to do that," Vance ⁠said last week.

Netanyahu was critical of Erdogan in a TV interview Monday.

"For a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America ... I don't think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets because that will upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and by America's posture," Netanyahu said.