Donald Trump has long described himself as the best friend Israel ever had in the White House. If his latest interview is any indication, he increasingly sees that friendship as a debt Israel will one day have to settle.
Speaking with Ross Douthat on CBS’s 60 Minutes in an interview that aired Sunday night, Trump declared that “Israel would not exist except for Donald Trump.” He credited the B-2 strikes he ordered on Iran’s nuclear sites in June 2025.
That claim came as part of a broader answer to whether American forces could keep guarding shipping in the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely. According to Trump, “those countries that we’ve protected are going to pay us back any and all costs that we’ve had for the war,” because “without us, they wouldn’t exist. Without us, Israel wouldn’t exist.”
טראמפ לתוכנית ’60 דקות’: לא רואה סיבה להסלים את המלחמה באיראן. ישראל תפצה אותנו על עלויות המלחמה, כי בלעדינו היא לא הייתה קיימת
@nathanguttman https://t.co/uUBJtCS9LF
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 9, 2026
Trump did not explicitly name Israel as one of the countries that will pay, and no repayment mechanism has been announced. But when he reached for an example of a nation that owes its existence to America, he chose the Jewish state.
Nor was this a slip of the tongue. Days before the interview aired, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Israel and “the entire Middle East” would “NOT EXIST TODAY” had he not stopped Iran. In June, he told The New York Times that Netanyahu “should be very thankful to us.” He also floated America serving as “the guardian of the Middle East” in exchange for a cut of the region’s revenues.
In the same 60 Minutes interview, Trump listed “a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel” alongside the Iran war and gas prices as reasons Republicans lost the midterms.
Taken together, the picture is troubling. Israel’s survival is presented as a personal gift and Israel itself as a political liability. The alliance becomes something that should earn gratitude and, perhaps, reimbursement. That is the language of a creditor, not an ally.
Setting the record straight
To be clear, Trump deserves real credit. The strike on Fordow accomplished something Israel could not do alone, and a nuclear-armed Iran would have posed an existential threat. Israelis should not and do not pretend otherwise.
But his version of events leaves out quite a lot. Israel launched the June 2025 campaign on its own, and American bombers joined later.
Going back further, since regional conflict long predates the recent Iran war, Israel fought its War of Independence under an arms embargo. Washington’s own historical record acknowledges that the United States “resisted” supplying Israel with sophisticated weapons into the early 1960s. During those years, the young state absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees while surrounded by hostile armies.
It survived because Jews returning from exile, and from the ashes of Europe, built an army, an economy and a nation. They buried their dead and kept building. All without US backing.
American support has been invaluable since then. But it is not the foundation.
Nothing, or something?
Trump’s account of Iran is no more consistent. Asked whether he would escalate now that the midterms are over, he said: “I’m not looking to. I don’t think there’s any reason to.” Iran, he insisted, has “nothing,” its nuclear material “buried under thousands of tons of rock.”
When Douthat asked whether material remained at Pickaxe Mountain, the answer changed: “Well, we don’t know that.”
On the same Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said “the mission is still not complete” and that Iran “is trying to renew its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Iran’s negotiating demands “outrageous and ridiculous,” adding, “I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough.”
These positions are not strictly contradictory. Iran’s facilities can be wrecked while its regime works to rebuild them.
But consider where they leave things. Trump sees no reason to strike, Katz sees a regime rebuilding, and Rubio sees no deal on the horizon. The only strategy left is waiting and hoping, as Trump put it, that Iran is “withering away.” Israel is the country that will live with the consequences if that hope proves misplaced.
The Guardian of Israel
Israel should be and is grateful to its friends. But gratitude is not debt. An ally’s existence is not a favor to be called in when the polls turn.
The psalmist wrote: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” That has never been an excuse for Israeli passivity or a rejection of strong allies. It is a reminder that Israel’s survival was never in any president’s hands.
Trump reportedly offered to be the guardian of the Middle East, for a price. Israel already has a Guardian. His terms are written in the Covenant, not negotiated in the Oval Office.
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