❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump has stated he might send U.S. ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary,” although he believes they are “probably” not needed.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, the Iranian regime, and U.S. military service members.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The comments were made on Monday, following the commencement of ongoing U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Saturday.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” said Trump.
🎯IMPACT: The strikes have reportedly decapitated Iran’s leadership, with Trump claiming the operation is ahead of schedule.
President Donald J. Trump has refused to rule out a land invasion of Iran, telling the New York Post that he is open to “boots on the ground” if the situation calls for it. This follows the launch of Operation Epic Fury, a U.S.-Israeli mission started on Saturday aimed at eliminating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s senior leadership, ballistic missile and nuclear infrastructure, and high-value military assets.
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” Trump said. “[E]very president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” he continued, adding: “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”
This marks something of a break with Vice President J.D. Vance, who said there was “no chance” of a long war in Iran shortly before operations began, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who insisted on Monday that “This is not Iraq. This is not endless… [Trump] called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he’s right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission: Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes.”
Despite keeping his options open on a land invasion, Trump stressed that Epic Fury is currently “right on schedule, way ahead of schedule” in terms of eliminating Iran’s leadership, citing “49 killed”—including the country’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pushing back on polling suggesting the war is unpopular, the President insisted, “I think that the polling is very good,” but added that, in any case, “I don’t care about polling.”
“I have to do the right thing,” he said, stressing that “You cannot let Iran, who’s a nation that has been run by crazy people, have a nuclear weapon,” and that he believes “a real poll” would show the “silent majority” is on his side.
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