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U.S. President Donald Trump said he is not ruling out deploying U.S. ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary,” following the launch of attacks on Iran early Saturday.
In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, Trump said he would not categorically reject the possibility of “boots on the ground.”
“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 said. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also did not rule out ground troops during a morning news conference at the Pentagon, saying he would not engage in hypotheticals.
Both Trump and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said they expect additional casualties during the military operations.
Caine told reporters at the Pentagon briefing that military objectives in Iran would take time to achieve.
“We expect to take additional losses” and will work to minimize them, he said.
Four U.S. service members have been killed in the strikes so far.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over the weekend showed that 43% of Americans disapprove of the strikes on Iran.
Trump suggested he was not concerned about the polling, saying he has “to do the right thing.”
“I don’t think the polling is low,” Trump said. “Look, whether polling is low or not, I think the polling is probably fine. But it’s not a question of polling. You cannot let Iran, who’s a nation that has been run by crazy people, have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump added that he believes “people are very impressed” with the U.S. military actions in Iran.
“I think it’s a silent — if you did a real poll, the silent poll — and it’s like a silent majority,” he said.
NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment.
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