The Trump administration made clear it was not involved in Israel’s dramatic military strikes against Iran, but that didn’t mean President Donald Trump wouldn’t take credit for them.
“I always knew the date,” the president told the New York Post Friday morning. “Because I know everything. I know everything. I know everything.”
Trump had been pressuring Iran over its nuclear program for months, and was glad to share in Israel’s success when its strikes took out the country’s top nuclear scientists and Gen. Hossein Salami, the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.”
“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told,” Trump continued, “that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it.”
Trump met with his National Security Council and spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Friday, the White House confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
In another social media post, Trump said he gave Iran 60 days, and that Friday was day 61.
Yet for much of that period, Trump appeared to be distancing himself from Netanyahu. Trump had been pressuring Israel over Gaza and boosting Saudi Arabia while sidelining Netanyahu. His “America First” policy reportedly left Israel uneasy.
“I think Israel is a bit alarmed that what they expected from President Trump, which was to be extremely supportive, very cooperative, and even malleable, in favor of some of their preferences, is not the President Trump that they are experiencing,” former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told the Washington Examiner last month.
But according to Alireza Nader, an independent analyst based in Washington, D.C., it all could have been a ruse.
“Trump and Netanyahu may have given the impression that there was some distance between them, and that could have fooled the officials in Tehran into thinking that they could take aggressive action, including trying to assemble nuclear weapons,” Nader said.
“I think they miscalculated,” he added.
Trump says he ‘always knew’ details of Israel’s attack on Iran
Trump’s statements on the matter differ in spirit if not in fact from what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday evening, which was that the U.S. had no involvement with the strikes.
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran,” Rubio said in a prepared statement. “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense.”
Either way, Trump is now working again to pressure Iran over nuclear talks, saying it now has a second chance “before there is nothing left.”
For now, Iran says it will not engage in nuclear talks with the U.S. at all, according to state media. But the devastating effect of the strikes and the threat of new attacks could eventually force its hand.
A senior U.S. official said that Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff would still like to participate in nuclear talks with Iran this weekend if the country agreed to them.
Not everyone thinks Trump and Netanyahu were always on the same page. Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin said Trump is always happy to share a victory, and things could have been different if the strikes weren’t successful.
“Trump likes to see himself as a winner,” Rubin, now at the American Enterprise Institute, said. “If the bombings failed, he would be all over Israel. If they succeed, he’ll try to share the glory.”
But Rubin agrees that the Iranians should have heeded Trump’s warnings during the spring, some of which were made publicly. For example, on March 30, Trump told NBC News, “If they don’t make a deal … there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
Trump and Netanyahu are “frenemies,” Rubin said, both protecting their own core national interests and working together when they align.
The U.S. did jump and help Israel when Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Friday, indicating the two nations are now coordinating directly in the conflict.
Both nations will now be on high alert for counterstrikes, either directly or through coordinated terrorist attacks.
“President Trump and the administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners,” Rubio said in his statement. “Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
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With Netanyahu and Trump now appearing to be on the same page, they are also preparing for the possibility of a prolonged war, which would bring its own set of domestic problems, as Trump campaigned on being a peacemaker.
“The American people overwhelming oppose our endless wars, and they voted that way when they voted for Donald Trump in 2024,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) posted on X. “I urge President Trump to stay the course, keep putting America first, and to not join in any war between other countries. Every American should hope and pray for peace.”
Christian Datoc contributed to this story