Supporters of Israel who also support President Trump like to contend that that Trump is the pro-Israel president in American history. That’s about half the story; many days, Trump is indeed effusive in his praise of the world’s lone Jewish state and ardent in his willingness to fight Israel’s enemies. But President Trump’s comments make clear that he also sees Israel in a subservient role to the United States.

Amidst a flurry of phone interviews with journalists yesterday, President Trump declared during a chat with the Financial Times that the Israeli government would have no choice but to accept whatever deal he negotiates with the Iranians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have no choice but to accept any deal the US negotiates with Iran, Donald Trump said, because the US president “calls the shots.”

“He won’t have any choice,” Trump told the FT in a telephone interview. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”

Mind you, Trump made that statement shortly after Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter stated on X, “Each one of those missiles can level an entire neighborhood and kill hundreds. No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel.” That statement was an implied rebuke of Trump’s public declarations that he was telling Netanyahu not to strike back against Iran, because, the president believes, he’s so close to a good deal with the Iranians.

The thing is, Israel has its national interests, and the U.S. has its national interests, and while the Venn Diagram overlaps a great deal, it isn’t a circle. For about a month, President Trump has insisted that he, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff are on the verge of a terrific deal with the Iranian mullahs who have broken every treaty they have ever signed. Shockingly, Bibi Netanyahu is not quite so convinced that peace for our time is almost here, and that the Iranian mullahs who keep firing ballistic missiles at his country are ready to turn over a new leaf.

So when the president runs around declaring, “I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots,” akin to Eric Cartman demanding others respect his authority… eh, maybe he isn’t the most pro-Israel president of all time.