Now that President Donald Trump has signed an agreement with Iran that caves on many of his initial demands, you would be forgiven for hoping he’s learned a valuable lesson.
Trump’s main takeaway? There are “no limits” to his power, as he declared on “The Axios Show” on Thursday.
Never mind that he went in with the goal of “unconditional surrender,” and left with a memorandum of understanding that provides a $300 billion fund for Iran’s reconstruction and opens the door to ending sanctions, in return for no real limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
Axios’s Marc Caputo asked the president whether he learned there are limits to his power after the war.
“I haven’t learned that lesson yet,” Trump replied. “I know there are, but there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily.”
🔋 EXCLUSIVE: On the next episode of The Axios Show, President Trump tells @marcacaputo that in the aftermath of the Iran war, there are “no limits” to his power. pic.twitter.com/QrNPh3wPX1
— Axios (@axios) June 18, 2026
To Trump, his power is comparable to conquerors and dictators of history, according to a new book from The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. In the book, Trump shows off a document that argues he’s more powerful than Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Hitler.
“They didn’t have airplanes, right? You couldn’t travel around,” Trump said of Alexander the Great, the Caesars, and William the Conqueror, according to the authors.
Grimly, Trump also seemed to take “evident pleasure” in “the company of Mao, Hitler, and Stalin.”
Trump also posted the document on Truth Social on Thursday. Whether comparing himself to Genghis Khan or saying he’s “the boss” of other G7 leaders, it’s clear that Trump sees power as the ability to submit other nations to your will.
