U.S. President Donald Trump has made a habit of threatening and bullying both adversaries and allies with dire consequences if they don’t do what he wants. Call it his definition of a true bully pulpit. Sometimes it has worked: for example, pushing Netanyahu to accept a 20-point Gaza peace plan in October 2025 after threatening to walk away from the Israeli leader. Sometimes it doesn’t work: for example, in pushing the Europeans on Greenland or pressuring Iran to accept U.S. terms for a deal. And then, of course, there’s last week’s threat to the Omanis to “blow them up” if the country’s leaders crossed him on the Strait of Hormuz.
Just this past week, Trump took to the bully pulpit again with Israel. Indeed, Trump said something about an Israeli leader that no U.S. president has ever said publicly: Netanyahu “will do whatever I want him to do” on Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made a habit of threatening and bullying both adversaries and allies with dire consequences if they don’t do what he wants. Call it his definition of a true bully pulpit. Sometimes it has worked: for example, pushing Netanyahu to accept a 20-point Gaza peace plan in October 2025 after threatening to walk away from the Israeli leader. Sometimes it doesn’t work: for example, in pushing the Europeans on Greenland or pressuring Iran to accept U.S. terms for a deal. And then, of course, there’s last week’s threat to the Omanis to “blow them up” if the country’s leaders crossed him on the Strait of Hormuz.
