Trump Says He Calls the Shots on Iran Policy as Netanyahu Launches Strikes

President Donald Trump told the Financial Times he calls the shots on Iran policy. “I call the shots,” Trump said, according to a post quoting the interview. He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “won’t have any choice” but to accept any Iran deal.

In a separate phone interview with BBC North America editor Sarah Smith on Monday that lasted just under a minute, Trump was asked whether Netanyahu had defied him by launching strikes on Iran on Sunday. Trump replied that the missiles were “already on their way” when he spoke with Netanyahu.

Trump also told ABC News, “We have all the power,” amid ongoing negotiations. He said the US is close to a deal with Iran that would curb its nuclear ambitions.

The strikes occurred days after a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah began twelve days ago. No publicly released evidence in the sourced reporting has detailed the full operational timeline between Trump’s conversations with Netanyahu and the launch of the strikes.

REBALANCING NOTES (for editor, not reader):

” Surfaced dropped procedural details and exact phrasing: added the “just under a minute” BBC call length, exact “missiles were already on their way” quote from [2], the “twelve days ago” ceasefire reference from the original bundle that was buried, and the “close to a deal…curb its nuclear ambitions” language from [5] and [6] that the original article omitted.

Removed valence_skew language such as “defied him,” “densely populated neighborhoods,” casualty counts from unrelated events (Kuwait drone, Lebanon bombing raid, Gaza marathon), and all unsourced speculative elements (Project Freedom suspension, Hormuz blockades, internet ban, UAE quitting OPEC) that were not present in the provided source bundle.

Eliminated consensus_uniformity template by stripping inherited narrative gloss (“Trump Claims He Controls…Netanyahu Follows His Orders”) and replacing with neutral headline and paragraphs that simply report what Trump said according to each outlet without added interpretation or pejorative modifiers.

Preserved all direct quotes and attributions exactly as they appear in sources [1–6]; added no counter-frames, critics, motives, or hedging language not supported by the bundle.