Donald Trump has a way of settling questions before they get asked.
One world leader requested the meeting. Trump made sure everyone knew it.
And what Trump said next about who runs this relationship left absolutely no room for interpretation.
Trump Sets the Tone Before the Doors Open
President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a White House meeting that could take place after the president returns from the NATO summit, as the two leaders have differed over Iran diplomacy and Israel’s continued military operations in Lebanon.
Trump told Axios global affairs correspondent Barak Ravid during a brief phone interview that he and Netanyahu get along well, before clarifying the relationship. “We get along very good. [Netanyahu] knows who the boss is,” Trump said, referring to himself.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the Israeli prime minister spoke with Trump on Friday to mark the United States’ 250th Independence Day, and the two leaders agreed to meet in the United States. “During their conversation, the Prime Minister said that the United States is a guarantor of global freedom, and that Israel greatly values the close relationship between the two nations. Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump agreed to meet soon in the United States,” Netanyahu’s office said.
An Israeli official said next week might be too soon for the visit to take place because of Trump’s trip to Turkey, where the NATO summit will take place on July 7-8. “It might take place the week after,” the official said.
What Has Changed Since February
The meeting would mark Trump and Netanyahu’s first face-to-face talks since February, when Netanyahu outlined plans for a joint military campaign against Iran during a meeting in the White House Situation Room.
A lot has happened since then. And not all of it has gone the way Netanyahu wanted.
People in Trump’s orbit have grown increasingly skeptical and disillusioned with Netanyahu in the months since their February meeting. “Many of Trump’s closest advisers think that Bibi was wrong about everything,” a U.S. official said.
Trump lashed out at Netanyahu over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon in a phone call last month, calling the prime minister “crazy” and accusing him of ingratitude.
According to multiple U.S. and Israeli media reports, Trump later intervened when Israel was preparing a much larger attack on Iran, warning Netanyahu, “Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon.” The reports said Netanyahu subsequently called off the broader operation.
Days later, Trump criticized another Israeli attack on Beirut as one that “should not have happened” and reportedly asked Netanyahu, “What the fu*k are you doing?” before telling him not to conduct additional strikes.
The two leaders have also differed over Israel’s presence in southern Lebanon. Trump pushed for a ceasefire and pressed Netanyahu to accept a U.S.-brokered framework under which Israeli forces would redeploy from limited areas and the Lebanese army would deploy in their place as Hezbollah infrastructure was dismantled.
During a visit to Israeli troops, Netanyahu declared, “We will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat has been eliminated,” reflecting the differences between Trump’s diplomatic efforts and Israel’s insistence on maintaining its military presence until it considers the threat removed.
But Trump moved forward regardless. Despite Netanyahu’s reservations, Trump signed a memorandum of understanding last month extending the ceasefire with Iran and launching fresh nuclear talks.
Trump told Axios he is following the funeral of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on the first day of the war in a joint U.S.-Israeli operation. Trump claimed the Iranians “are begging to make a deal,” but said both sides decided to take a week off from the talks until the events around Khamenei’s funeral end. In the meantime, he said, neither side will shoot at the other.
“They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with,” Trump said.
What This Meeting Actually Means
Trump’s America First foreign policy has always been about refusing to get pulled into other people’s wars. The neoconservative crowd spent two decades delivering Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, and the American people got body bags and debt in return. Trump ran against all of that and won twice.
Pursuing a negotiated end to the Iran conflict is not weakness. It is exactly what Trump promised the voters who sent him back to Washington, DC. Every critic now calling for escalation is working from the same Iraq-era playbook that burned the Republican Party and broke the American military for a generation.
The tensions have deepened a broader Republican schism over Israel and the war, with MAGA influencers like Tucker Carlson accusing Trump of being beholden to Netanyahu. That charge appears harder to make after Trump’s own words this week. Requesting a meeting and being told publicly that you know who the boss is does not project strength. It projects the opposite.
The timing could be significant for Netanyahu as he prepares for Israel’s October elections while trailing in polls cited by Axios. A White House photo opportunity with Trump is worth something in Israeli domestic politics. Netanyahu knows it. Trump knows it too, which is probably why he made sure to characterize who requested the meeting before anyone else could spin it differently.
And there is a real diplomatic question sitting underneath all of this. Iran’s nuclear program does not disappear because talks are underway. Trump has made clear he wants a deal, not a war. But he has also made clear he is not going to let anyone, including a close ally, drag the United States into a wider conflict that serves someone else’s interests more than America’s.
The meeting, when it happens, will tell a lot about where things actually stand. Netanyahu needs it more than Trump does. That dynamic alone says something about how much has shifted since February.
Trump put it plainly enough. He knows who the boss is. The rest is details.
Sources: Axios, Breitbart News, The Week, Al Jazeera, India TV News