Trump says attacks on Iran were

Washington —President Trump said that War between the United States and Israel against Iran It represented the “last best chance” to address the threat posed by the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missiles and nuclear program.

He also said the administration expects the campaign to last four to five weeks, but “we have [the] ability to go much longer than that.

At a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House, the president said Iran ignored U.S. warnings to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. He said the regime’s “rapidly” growing conventional ballistic missile program posed a “very clear and colossal threat” to the United States and forces stationed abroad.

“This was our last best opportunity to strike, which we are doing now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” the president told his audience. “And indeed they are sick and sinister.”

The president said Iranian leaders “already had missiles capable of reaching Europe and our bases, both home and abroad, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.” The objectives of the mission, he said, “are clear,” listing four of them.

“First, we are destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, and that happens every hour, and its ability to produce completely new missiles,” he said. “Second, we are annihilating their Navy. We have already shot down 10 ships. They are at the bottom of the sea. Third, we are ensuring that the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world can never obtain a nuclear weapon… And finally, we are ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, finance and direct terrorist armies outside its borders.”

In an interview that same day, he refused to rule out the use of ground troops, saying he would not hesitate to deploy them “if they were necessary.”

“I have no criticism of troops on the ground, as every president says, ‘There will be no troops on the ground.’ I’m not saying that,” the president told the New York Post. “I say ‘I probably don’t need them,'” [or] ‘if they were necessary'”.

In a briefing Monday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also refused to rule out the use of ground troops. He said there are currently no U.S. service members on the ground in Iran, but added: “We’re not going to get into the exercise of what we will or won’t do.”

Trump said the US military will “easily prevail” over the Iranian regime. He hinted that the war timeline could stretch longer than the initial four or five weeks he mentioned earlier.

“We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the timing is, that’s fine. Whatever it takes, we’ll always do it, and from the beginning we’ve projected it to be four to five weeks. But we have the capacity to go much longer than that. We’ll do whatever,” he said. “Someone said today, ‘Well, the president wants to do it real quick. After that, he’ll get bored.’ I’m not bored. There’s nothing boring about this.”

Trump spoke at the White House after his interview with the Post, his first public event since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran during the weekend. He had posted pre-recorded videos but had not personally addressed the bombing campaign.

“Today, the United States military continues to conduct large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the serious threats posed to the United States by this terrible terrorist regime,” he said at the beginning of a Medal of Honor ceremony.

The president was at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, during the initial phase of the war, following events from his estate, and returned to the White House on Sunday night.

So far, four US service members have died in Operation Epic Fury, according to the US military. Hegseth saying that the troops were killed by a munition that hit a tactical operations center in Kuwait.

“Today we mourn the four heroic American service members who died in combat and send our love and support to their families,” the president said Monday. “In his memory, we continue this mission with fierce and unwavering determination to crush the threat that this terrorist regime poses to the American people, and a threat indeed it is.”

In a video message Sunday night, Trump saying He expects there will be more American casualties, but combat operations “will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.”

“We pray for the full recovery of the injured and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen,” he said. “And, unfortunately, there will probably be more before it’s over. That’s just the way it is.”

Israeli attacks at the beginning of the conflict killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneialong with dozens of other senior officials. More than 1,000 targets were hit during the first 24 hours of the ensuing bombing campaign, according to Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel, Gulf nations and US facilities in the region.

Trump said for the first time on Sunday that he expects the US strikes to continue for four or five weeks. Hegseth was asked about that timeline and dismissed it as a “gotcha question.”

“President Trump has all the freedom in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take: four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. He could move forward or backward,” he said. “We are going to execute at your command the objectives that we have set out to achieve.”