In a Thursday interview after making major concessions to Iran in his MOU, President Donald Trump insisted there are “no limits” to his presidential authority.

In a Thursday interview with Axios following his signing of a deal with Iran that fell short of the US’ stated goals, Trump rejected the idea that the Iran war exposed any constraints on his power, saying instead that his influence remains effectively unrestricted.

When asked what he learned about the limits of presidential authority, Trump responded: “There are no limits.”

“I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits,” he continued.

Trump also claimed the US achieved overwhelming military success in the conflict, saying: “we defeated them totally militarily,” and suggesting the resulting memorandum of understanding “probably is unconditional surrender.”

He added that the operation demonstrated American dominance, stating: “Who else could have done a blockade like that? I did a naval blockade where not one ship was able to get through. Some tried. It didn’t last very long.”

He did, however, acknowledge risks of escalation, warning that continued strikes could have shut down the Strait of Hormuz and triggered a global energy crisis with potentially severe economic consequences.

Separately, CNN reported on excerpts from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s upcoming book Regime Change, containing passages describing Trump telling reporters in March about a document he was shown that compared his global authority to leaders including Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Napoleon, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, and Adolf Hitler.

According to the authors, Trump reacted positively to the comparison, arguing that past rulers “maintained power through fear,” and asking, “Who would ever do a thing like that? Right?”

The document, initially presented as coming from a historian, was later traced to a golf associate of a sports figure connected to the event, the book reports.

Trump later posted the document online while still describing its author as a “presidential historian.”

The book portrays Trump’s second term as more expansive and less constrained than his first, highlighting aggressive policy moves, internal clashes, and an increasingly direct approach to foreign leaders and domestic officials alike.