Trump publicly overrules Israeli PM on Iran negotiations as ceasefire frays and missile strikes escalate regional crisis
President Donald Trump has publicly declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no veto over any nuclear or diplomatic agreement the United States reaches with Iran — telling the Financial Times bluntly: “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.”
The remarks, unusually direct even by Trump’s standards, signal a deepening fracture between Washington and its closest Middle East ally at a moment of acute regional instability.
Ceasefire Collapses, Missiles Fly
The confrontation follows Iran’s ballistic missile strikes targeting Israel — the most serious breach yet of a ceasefire established in April. The U.S. and Israel had conducted coordinated strikes on multiple Iranian sites on February 28; Iran retaliated with attacks across the region and closed the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil supply.
Despite the escalation, Trump told the FT that Iran’s missile campaign would not derail ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he said, adding: “The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it.”
Trump also told Fox News he would instruct Netanyahu to hold back from retaliatory strikes against Iran — an extraordinary assertion of U.S. authority over Israeli military decision-making.
Trump Outlines Military and Economic Pressure Options
When asked what would happen if negotiations collapsed entirely, Trump outlined two scenarios: renewed military strikes against Iranian targets not yet hit, or maintaining what he described as a powerful economic blockade.
“It would mean that possibly we would go in and take care of the rest of the place that we didn’t take care of militarily,” he said. “Or it would just mean that we would keep the blockade on Iran — because the blockade has been probably more powerful than any attack that was ever made on that country.”
A Relationship Under Severe Strain
Trump’s public dressing-down of Netanyahu follows reports of an explosive phone call between the two leaders on June 1. According to those accounts, Trump told the Israeli prime minister: “You’re f—ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your a–. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
The reported exchange reflects a relationship that has shifted dramatically. Netanyahu, who faces ongoing domestic legal jeopardy and has long relied on Trump as a political shield, now appears to be on the receiving end of the same transactional pressure Trump applies to other allies.
Whether Trump’s insistence on controlling the terms of any Iran deal reflects a coherent diplomatic strategy — or an improvised assertion of dominance — remains unclear. What is clear is that the U.S. is pursuing negotiations with Iran while Israeli cities remain under missile fire, a tension the administration has yet to resolve.