President Donald Trump said Monday that the military operation in Iran could last four to five weeks — but made clear he’s open to an extended conflict.
“I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this,” Trump said during remarks at the White House for a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Trump said that the military was “ahead of schedule there by a lot,” noting strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces already killed many senior Iranian leaders. While he said he anticipates the war to end in a matter of weeks, “we have capability to go far longer than that.”
The remarks were Trump’s first live, televised statements since Israel and the U.S. began their strikes on Iran early Saturday. He spoke about the war for about six minutes before turning to talk about his White House renovations — “I picked those drapes in my first term; I always like gold” — and then moving to the ceremony honoring Medal of Honor recipients.
The president did not take questions.
Four U.S. servicemembers have been killed since the Iran operation began, the Pentagon said Monday, and 18 seriously wounded, according to CNN. More than 550 people have been killed in Iran, the Iranian Red Crescent said Monday. Authorities say that more than 30 people have been killed in Lebanon, 11 in Israel, and others across the region.
In his Monday remarks, Trump said the strikes were necessary “to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime.”
“We warned Iran not to make any attempt to rebuild at a different location, because they were unable to use the ones we so powerfully blew up, but they ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Trump said at the ceremony. “This posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas. The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.”
Trump did not address what the rest of the operation would look like. Early Monday, he said putting troops on the ground was a possibility if it was deemed necessary.
“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,” Trump told the New York Post on Monday.
Trump urged the Iranian people to “take over your government” in his initial comments announcing the strikes. However, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Monday that the reason for the operation was not regime change.
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