Some readers may remember that U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North testified at televised congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987. At one point, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) suggested that North speak for himself, admonishing his lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, for constantly objecting to questions posed to the colonel. “Well, sir,” Sullivan responded, “I’m not a potted plant. I’m here as the lawyer. That’s my job.”

The line has endured because it captures something fundamental: People in positions of power are not decorative—they act, decide and bear responsibility.

This only highlights the absurdity of current discourse around U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel. Across the political spectrum, a convenient fiction has taken hold: Trump doesn’t really control U.S. policy. Someone else does.

This is nonsense.

Trump is many things—impulsive, stubborn, transactional—but he is not passive. He governs by instinct. He fires advisers who disagree with him. He reverses policy midstream if it suits him. He openly brags about making decisions “from the gut.”

And we’re supposed to believe this man was simply vegetating in the Oval Office when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to visit?

Further complicating this narrative, when U.S. policy diverged from Israeli preferences, some right-wing Israelis and American Jewish supporters of the Netanyahu government searched for scapegoats to defend Trump. They landed on two Jews.

Normally, this would be considered antisemitic, but when it comes to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and, especially, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, blame is regarded as kosher. One or both have been accused at various times of pressuring Israel, creating security risks and being naive. The fact that both are Zionists is irrelevant. They have also been accused of selling out Israel because of their business interests in the region.

Kushner was accused of supporting the inclusion of Turkish and Qatari representatives on the Gaza administrative committee over Israel’s objection. He was also accused of retaliating for Israel’s refusal to reopen the Rafah border crossing at Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Witkoff was criticized for his approach to hostage negotiations, his characterizations of Hamas and his defense of Qatar’s role as a mediator.

After a “60 Minutes” interview with the two men, where they spoke about Israel “getting out of control” and feeling betrayed by Jerusalem’s attempted assassination of Hamas officials in Doha, critics noted that Kushner’s investment company manages billions from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Qatar also bought the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan from Witkoff and his partners.

There is no such thing as freelance foreign policy at this level. Envoys don’t set strategy; they execute it. The United States has one foreign policy: the one the president chooses. Yet because of their TDS (“Trump Deification Syndrome”), critics refuse to accept that Kushner and Witkoff were carrying out the president’s will.

Ironically, while the pair was blamed by many Israelis for Trump’s anti-Israel policies, a Gulf diplomat described them as acting like “Israeli assets” and accused them of manipulating Trump into war with Iran.

The war has united the right and left in viewing Trump as a potted plant. Various progressives, antisemites, conspiracy theorists, isolationists, disaffected MAGA and critics of Israel believe that Netanyahu persuaded the president to fight. This raises two questions: If Netanyahu is so influential, how do critics explain Trump’s decisions detrimental to Israel, and why isn’t Trump following Netanyahu’s urging to finish the job in Iran?

How do the botanists explain that?

The idea of Netanyahu as Trump whisperer runs afoul of history. Consider a few Trump decisions that frustrated the prime minister: insisting on ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon; forcing Netanyahu to apologize to the emir of Qatar after the failed assassination attempt; threatening all U.S. support if Israel annexed the West Bank; forcing Israel to recall its planes after declaring a ceasefire with Iran last June; and imposing higher tariffs on Israel.

These are the actions of a president making his own choices—sometimes at Israel’s expense. Yet some supporters refuse to hold Trump responsible for decisions undermining Israel’s security.

Trump’s frustration over being accused of being dragged into the Iran war led him to post, “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did.”

This statement is entirely consistent with everything The New York Times reported about the pre-war deliberations, even as the Times pushed the Netanyahu-manipulation narrative. The paper acknowledged three things: Trump’s views on Iran were deeply held and predated Netanyahu’s February presentation. He had been emboldened by the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, as well as Iran’s restrained response to the Israeli and U.S. airstrikes on nuclear facilities in June 2025.

Multiple advisers noted that his thinking aligned with Israel’s independently, not because he had been persuaded. In short, Netanyahu confirmed what Trump already believed. That is very different from manipulation.

The truth is uncomfortable for everyone who has advanced the potted-plant theory.

For the isolationist right, it means that the president they supported is personally responsible for a Middle East war they oppose. For the progressive left, it removes a convenient villain and forces an honest reckoning with American presidential power when a regional adversary nears nuclear capability. For Netanyahu’s critics, it means that the Israeli prime minister, despite his faults, did not, in fact, drag the most powerful nation on earth into a war against its will.

The next time this topic arises, Trump could adapt Sullivan’s statement: “I am not a potted plant. I am the president. I make the decisions.”