President Donald Trump says he likes where things stand with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but only because he manages to rein the man in.

Pressed on the state of that partnership, Trump said it was “good, but we have to keep him a little bit sane,” according to an interview on “The Axios Show” that aired Thursday. He spoke with Axios reporter Marc Caputo hours after wrapping a G7 summit in France.

Throughout the sit-down, Trump cast the United States as the senior partner who supplies the muscle. “We’re the ones with the guns,” he said, pointing to the B-2 bombers used against Iran. Without his involvement, Trump argued, “Israel would’ve been eviscerated.” (RELATED: Benjamin Netanyahu Reportedly Hatches Plan To Influence Final Iran Deal, And It Involves Mark Levin)

He left little doubt about who he believes calls the shots. Asked whether he could stop Israel from striking Lebanon, Trump answered, “Yeah I will be,” and added that Israeli leaders “have a lot of respect for me, and they do as I say.”

That confidence follows a tense stretch between the two men. Trump leaned on Netanyahu during a heated June phone call to back off plans for hitting Hezbollah targets in Beirut, Axios reported. One U.S. official told the outlet that Trump “steamrolled” the prime minister, while Netanyahu later said Israel would still strike if Hezbollah kept up its attacks.

Trump went further in describing the exchange, saying he called Netanyahu “crazy” over the planned Lebanon expansion, NPR reported. Netanyahu has played down any friction. He told CNBC that he and Trump can “disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action.”

Trump tied the entire dynamic back to Iran. Scrapping the nuclear deal and ordering the strikes months ago, he said, are the reasons “Israel would not exist today” otherwise.