Trump says Netanyahu will do whatever he wants amid Iran peace push

Donald Trump projected direct leverage over Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, saying the Israeli prime minister would do “whatever I want him to do” as the war with Iran and a possible peace deal moved onto a narrower, more fragile track.

The comment landed as Trump also said he was “in no hurry” to strike an agreement, even as the White House weighed the next U.S. move and Israel considered whether to resume strikes on Iran. CBS News reported that former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro was joining to discuss the remarks, underscoring how unusually personal the public pressure had become between Washington and Jerusalem.

The immediate backdrop was a difficult Trump-Netanyahu call on Tuesday, May 20, 2026, about ceasefire talks. Axios reported that the conversation came amid a revised peace memo drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from other regional mediators, a sign that outside governments were trying to keep the talks alive even as the battlefield remained active. Reuters reported that the administration was considering a three-part framework that would formally end the war, address the Strait of Hormuz crisis and open a 30-day window for broader negotiations.

That framework would amount to more than a pause in fighting. It would test whether the United States can still translate military pressure into a political settlement after the war began on February 28, 2026, when U.S. and Israeli strikes hit Iran. It would also show whether Trump’s public claims of influence over Netanyahu reflect real leverage, or a warning to both allies and adversaries that Washington still intends to set the terms.

Iran, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that it was reviewing the latest U.S. proposal to end the war. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that renewed attacks could spread the conflict beyond the region, a threat that raises the stakes for Gulf shipping, oil prices and any negotiation over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump had previously told Netanyahu in December 2025 that the United States would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if talks failed, a reminder that the White House has already signaled openness to force.

For allies and rivals alike, Trump’s latest remarks suggested a simple but consequential message: the next phase of the Iran war may hinge not just on Tehran’s response, but on whether Netanyahu accepts Washington’s line or calculates he can push past it.