US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out deploying American ground troops into Iran, while warning of a major new wave of attacks in the ongoing conflict.
Speaking at a White House award ceremony on Monday, March 2, 2026, Trump said the United States could sustain operations well beyond the four-week timeframe he has previously mentioned.
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” Trump said, using a golf term for hesitation or anxiety.
“Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it.”
“I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ (or) ‘if they were necessary,’” he told the New York Post in one of several interviews since the Iran operation began.
Trump also told CNN that the current aerial campaign is only the beginning.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened,” he said.
“The big one is coming soon.”
Three US soldiers have been killed and five seriously injured in the military operation against Iran so far.
Iran has launched counterattacks targeting US bases in the Gulf and other sites across the region.
Trump praised the fallen soldiers as “great people” and acknowledged that more casualties are possible.
“And, you know, we expect that to happen, unfortunately. Could happen continuously – it could happen again,” he added.
Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir stated late Sunday that Israel had achieved “significant achievements” in Iran over the first 48 hours, but warned that “many more days of fighting lie ahead.”
The conflict escalated after US and Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior figures, prompting Iranian missile and drone retaliation across multiple countries.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled that ground troops have not been ruled out.
Asked if there were already boots on the ground, Hegseth said: “No, but we’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.”
“We’ll go as far as we need to go.”
On the war’s duration, he added: “Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could move up. It could move back.”
Hegseth emphasised that unlike past US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iran operation is not about nation-building or democracy promotion.
“No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise. No politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don’t waste time or lives,” he said.
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless.”
General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that US and allied forces have achieved air superiority over Iran, enabling continued operations with reduced risk to American aircraft.
