After killing 49 leaders: Trump won’t rule out US ground troops, warns that ‘the big’ strikes in Iran are still coming

Both U.S. President Donald Trump and his war secretary wouldn’t rule out the use of ground troops in Iran on Monday, while Trump warned that the peak of the campaign is still to come and expressed general satisfaction with its progress so far.

“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon,” Trump told CNN.

He reiterated that the operation would continue for at least another month, saying, “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said he’s not ruling out sending in U.S. ground troops “if they were 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 said. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth likewise declined to “go into the exercise of what we will or will not do” when asked about this issue.

Trump also told CNN that the U.S. is supporting the Iranian people outside the military realm, without specifying what this meant exactly. In a briefing with Hegseth on Monday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine noted that the U.S. Cyber Command and the Space Force had conducted cyber operations to disrupt and “blind Iran's ability to see, communicate and respond” ahead of the strikes.

NEW: @BretBaier just spoke with President Trump to discuss his perspective on the ongoing Iranian strikes and the current state of operations. He breaks down what they discussed:

"From the President of the United States, he is pleased, does believe that this is going faster than… pic.twitter.com/tUHXoYX1tD

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 2, 2026

Caine also said that “this is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work.”

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said that Supreme Leader Khamenei was among 49 Iranian leaders who had been eliminated so far. The ayatollah was meeting with his inner circle for breakfast when Israeli strikes hit his compound, Trump said.

“It was 49 leaders that were taken out. That was going to take four weeks, we thought, to get rid of the Iranian leadership. And it’s always, you know, if they hide, it’s a lot longer than four weeks. And they would have been hiding,” Trump said. “We were shocked when we heard what was going on. We knew exactly what was happening and where.”

The “biggest surprise” of the war so far was the decision by Iran to attack the Arab nations in the region, Trump said, noting that the U.S. had assured them they would not have to fight.

“And now they want to fight. And they’re aggressively fighting. They were going to be very little involved and now they insist on being involved,” Trump said.

Qatar shot down two Iranian planes on Monday, and leaders of several other countries have signaled they could participate in strikes against the Iranian regime.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United States, in a joint statement on Monday, strongly condemned “Iran’s indiscriminate and reckless missile and drone attacks against sovereign territories across the region,” including most of the undersigned countries as well as “the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.”

“These unjustified strikes targeted sovereign territory, endangered civilian populations, and damaged civilian infrastructure,” the statement said, adding the countries “stand united in defense of our citizens, sovereignty, and territory, and reaffirm our right to self-defense in the face of these attacks.”

During the briefing, Hegseth stressed that the goal is to “prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders” by eliminating its ballistic missile capability, degrading its navy and destroying “other security infrastructure,” in addition to preventing its ability to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“These are not utopian goals ... We will finish this on 'America First' conditions,” he said.

Trump also addressed the question about the identity of Iran’s next leader, telling Fox News he doesn’t know but “maybe they’ll get lucky and get someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“They don’t know who’s leading. It’s a little like the unemployment line,” he joked.

“It turns out the regime who chanted ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ was gifted death from American and death from Israel,” said Hegseth, noting that “This is not a so-called ‘regime change war’, but the regime sure did change.”

He also expressed remarkable appreciation for the coordination with the Israeli military, whom he praised as “capable partners,” contrary to America’s “traditional allies” who “wring their hands and clutch their pearls … about the use of force”.

Hegseth noted that the operation has been conducted “all on our terms, with maximum authorities”.

“No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars,” he stressed. “We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives, as the president warned, an effort of this scope will include casualties.”