President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on the way to the 2025 NATO Summit on June 24. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Columnist
Dan Perry
June 24, 2025
With President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the unfolding Israel-Iran war has made one lesson clear: Their public interactions are often a form of theater more than a reflection of reality.
This has been true for years, but the past two weeks or so have been particularly striking. Israel does not scuttle high-level American diplomacy talks — like the round with Iran planned in Oman and cancelled because of Israel’s actions — without approval. And yet, for a brief moment the United States pretended Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran came as a surprise.
Once it became clear that the campaign was successful, Trump dropped the act. “We own the skies of Iran,” he declared — language that seemed to frame the Israeli victory as practically an American operation. Trump then revealed, smugly, that he had given Iran a 60-day deadline to negotiate over nuclear power — and “you see what happened on the 61st.”
Why this farce of implausible deniability? Simple: Both men understand that for all their posturing about strength, their political dominance depends on them maintaining the illusion of momentum, of mastery, of always being the one who moves the chess pieces.
That’s the context in which to view the events of the last 24 hours. After midnight Middle East time, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that not only had a ceasefire been reached, but that “peace” between Israel and Iran would be everlasting. He also claimed both sides approached him to broker the deal.
Within a few hours, both Israel and Iran confirmed the ceasefire. But in the Middle East, ceasefires often come with a final volley. Whoever fires last claims symbolic victory.
So in the final minutes before the deal took hold, Israel hammered targets in Tehran, and Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel, killing four people in Beersheba. Then, an Iranian projectile landed harmlessly in Israel a few hours after the truce. Reports in Israel circulated about the ceasefire breaking down, alleging a massive imminent response.
Now, Trump is publicly angry. Meeting reporters at an airfield enroute to the NATO Summit in The Hague, he condemned both sides, but especially Israel, for violating the terms. He even publicly dropped the F-bomb, saying both sides “don’t know what the f— they’re doing” — a true rarity from a president.
Was he genuinely angry? That’s hard to say. What’s clear is that Netanyahu needs Trump to appear angry in order to actually pull back from the conflict.
Here’s the truth, as best I can divine: some in Israel had started to dream of regime change in Iran. The success of the strikes on Iran gave rise to grand fantasies, especially among nationalist hardliners, that this war could end with the fall of the Islamic Republic.
This ceasefire, then, is a comedown. For Netanyahu to continue portraying his effort as a success — which, to be fair, it is — without extending Israel’s engagement in Iran, a move that might deeply strain an already overtaxed and frustrated military, he needs feigned Trumpian outrage to explain why Israel must back out.
Almost everything about the Iran war has felt, to some degree or another, staged. There were the decoy missions that preceded the weekend’s targeted American strikes on Iran – including Trump’s declaration that he might need a two-week window to decide his next move. Trump was both mainlining the element of surprise and keeping himself in his preferred place, at the center of attention.
Next came Iran’s curious retaliation against the U.S. Al Udeid base in Qatar. The attack did little damage, and there are reports that Iran gave advance warning. It’s hard not to see this as theater as well — a choreographed way for Iran to check the box of retaliation while avoiding actual escalation.
The goal seemed to be optics: Everyone needs to do something before the curtain falls.
But is the audience actually buying it? Some, for sure. But with Trump and Netanyahu, everyone should be used to this routine.
Take the Abraham Accords. The timing of the announcements, the choreography of the White House signings, and the vague implications of future normalization all occurred in the runup to elections in both countries. Trump got to paint himself as a peacemaker weeks before the 2020 election — which he still lost — and Netanyahu got diplomatic wins without having to concede anything on the Palestinian front.
And then there’s Iran. In 2018, Netanyahu theatrically presented stolen Iranian nuclear documents (from many years before) on live TV. Weeks later, Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal former President Barack Obama had reached with Iran. While Washington insisted it had made an independent decision, this was an outcome Netanyahu had agitated for, although one widely opposed by Israel’s security establishment. The sequencing and messaging was rather clearly aligned.
But as much as Netanyahu is a willing and able participant in this act, it’s really Trump’s game. The president likes to break with precedent as a rule, and he loves to put on a show, especially in foreign policy. Whether he’s pledging (and soon forgetting) to “buy” and “own” Gaza; suggesting Ukraine started the war with Russia; claiming he “fell in love” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un; the performance is the message. It’s often meant to hide the truth, and increase Trump’s hold on acolytes who love the routine.
Looking ahead, expect Trump to play the postwar game with his usual flair: pretending he can’t fully control Israel, then using that uncertainty as leverage on Iran. He’ll posture as the ultimate dealmaker, ready to negotiate from strength, claiming that only he can stop the next war.
He’ll talk about the new ceasefire as a global milestone that only he could have achieved — so grand, indeed, that even skeptical Israelis will be pressured into silence.
And Netanyahu, for his part, will lean on Trump’s theatrics to navigate his political minefield at home. After all, in our social media-addled age, a gripping story is the key. Facts are nice-to-haves but not necessities. That’s why with Trump and Netanyahu, two masters of the medium, what you see is not exactly what you get.
