In a phone interview with the Times of Israel on March 9, 2026, President Trump said the decision to end the US war with Iran would be a “mutual” decision made with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump stated, “I think it's mutual... a little bit. We've been talking.”
The statement directly contradicted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said just two days earlier that the decision to end the war would rest “solely” with the US president and that Washington expected the conflict to last four to six weeks.
The admission is extraordinary: a sitting US president publicly stated that a foreign leader will share decision-making authority over when American troops stop fighting and dying. Seven US soldiers had been killed and 18 seriously injured by this point, with over 1,200 Iranian civilians dead including children at a primary school in Minab.
Trump also used the interview to praise the destruction, saying, “We've destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel” — framing the war explicitly as being fought for Israel's benefit, not America's. He further demanded that Israeli President Herzog immediately pardon Netanyahu for his ongoing corruption trial (see Trump Spent Months Pressing Israel's President to Pardon Netanyahu, Then Called Him 'Weak and Pathetic' for Refusing).
The statement reinforces Secretary Rubio's earlier admission that Israel effectively forced America's hand by initiating attacks, and raises the fundamental question: if the US went to war without Congressional authorization and the decision to end it rests with a foreign leader, who exactly is the US military fighting for?
Correction (September 17, 2026): an earlier version of this entry described the Minab school as a girls' school. A UN fact-finding mission describes it as a primary school for girls and boys aged 6 to 13 and cites a final local toll of 156, including 120 schoolchildren.