In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, a day after the U.S.-led military action against Tehran dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," Trump said, "I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it." He added, "I say 'probably don't need them,' [or] 'if they were necessary.'"
But officials maintain that such a deployment is not currently planned, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth saying that no American troops are currently inside Iran.
"[Trump] ensures our enemies understand we'll go as far as we need to go to advance American interests. But we're not dumb about it," Hegseth told reporters. "You don't have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years."
"We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses," he added.
The confrontations, which began with a surprise joint airstrike by the U.S. and Israel last Saturday that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have expanded into a broader conflict involving countries across the Gulf region. Now in its third day, intense violence continues as Iranian forces retaliate with drone and missile attacks on targets across Israel, U.S. bases and Gulf states.
Many analysts assess that the operation could last four to five weeks or longer, depending on developments on the ground.
But Trump said, "Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that," adding, "So we're ahead of schedule there by a lot."
Meanwhile, six U.S. service members have been killed since the operation against Iran began, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
"As of [Monday], six U.S. service members have been killed in action. U.S. forces recently recovered the remains of two previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran's initial attacks in the region. Major combat operations continue. The identities of the fallen are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification," CENTCOM said.
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