Trump Won’t Rule Out Sending US Troops Into Iran ‘If Necessary’— Tells The Post War is Progressing ‘Way Ahead of Schedule’
By Steven Nelson
WASHINGTON — President Trump told The Post Monday that he’s not ruling out sending US ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary” — adding that Operation Epic Fury was “way ahead of schedule” after taking out dozens of Tehran’s top officials.
“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 after launching strikes Saturday to decapitate Iran’s military and political leadership. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”
President Trump oversees Operation Epic Fury at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, FL, March 1, 2026.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at a Monday morning Pentagon press conference that no American troops are currently inside Iran, though he also did not rule out the possibility.
“President 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 reporteres. “You don’t have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years.”
Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday that he estimated the war would last “four weeks or so,” but hinted to The Post on Monday that the timeframe could be shortened.
A man carries a resident following an airstrike on an Iranian police centre that damaged residential buildings around it in Niloofar square in central Tehran on march 1, 2026.
“It’s going to go pretty quickly,” he said. “We’re right on schedule, way ahead of schedule in terms of leadership — 49 killed — and that was, you know, going to take, we figured, at least four weeks, and we did it in one day.”
Trump also said he wasn’t concerned about Iran using terrorism to repay America for the weekend’s attack.
“We’ll take it out. Whatever. It’s like everything else, we’ll take it out,” Trump said.
A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026.
The president also said Monday that he made the final decision to strike, in partnership with Israel, “after the final talks” Thursday in Geneva — in part because of intelligence that Iran was surreptitiously resuming work on nuclear projects at a “totally different site.”
“We had very serious negotiations, and they were there, and then they pulled back. It would always pull back,” he said.
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance fires a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) in support of Operation Epic Fury, Feb. 28, 2026.
“And you know, you never make a deal like that, because ultimately they’ll pull back after the deal is made, which is what they do, typically. But it was just — they just couldn’t get there. They wanted to make a nuclear weapon, so we destroyed them completely,” Trump said.
“We found they were in a totally different site — totally different — because the sites that we took out were [destroyed]. They tried to use them, but they were totally, as I said correctly before, obliterated, right? So then we found them working on a totally different area, a totally different site, in order to make a nuclear weapon through enrichment — so it was just time.”
“I said, ‘Let’s go.’”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed at a Monday press conference that there are currently no US troops in Iran.
Trump insisted that he believes he did “the right thing” and that most Americans support him — despite initial polling indicating otherwise — arguing that allowing “crazy people” to acquire a nuclear weapon would have been worse than even a regional conflict.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Saturday and Sunday found that just 27% of Americans approved of the strikes — while 43% disapproved and 29% weren’t sure.
Iranians watch missile strikes in Tehran as part of Operation Epic Fury from a rooftop on Feb. 28, 2026.
A CNN/SSRS poll released Monday similarly showed that 41% approved of the latest US attack, while 59% disapproved. By comparison, 44% approved of Operation Midnight Hammer to take out three Iranian nuclear sites this past June and 56% disapproved.
“I think that the polling is very good, but I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing. I have to do the right thing. This should have been done a long time ago,” Trump said.
“I don’t think the polling is low,” he went on. “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.
“I think people are very impressed with what is happening, actually,” Trump insisted. “I think it’s a silent — if you did a real poll, the silent poll — and it’s like a silent majority.”
A building destroyed by an airstrike in Tehran seen on March 2, 2026.
Among those killed by the US and Israeli airstrikes include Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran since 1989.
At least four American military members have died after an Iranian counterstrike on a US operations center in Kuwait.
Trump told The Post his decision was underpinned by decades of Iranian actions.
“Don’t forget, this has been going on for 47 years — for 47 years, they were, they were playing bad,” he said, citing the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings that killed 241 Americans and the 1979-1981 hostage crisis after the storming of the US embassy in Tehran.
“When Obama gave them the Iran nuclear deal [in 2015], that may have been the dumbest deal ever made,” Trump said. “He picked the wrong country. But they would have had a nuclear weapon four years ago. Israel would not exist, and we would have to just take it out ourself.”
Original source: https://nypost.com/2026/03/02/us-news/trump-wont-rule-out-sending-us-troops-into-iran-if-necessary-tells-the-post-i-dont-care-about-polling/