President Trump defended the U.S. military operation in Iran on Monday, saying the strikes aim to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities and navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and stop it from arming and funding terrorism worldwide.
He offered no new details about the length or scope of the strikes that began over the weekend and that have so far resulted in the deaths of four American soldiers. “We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it’s OK,” he said. “Whatever it takes, we will always and we have from right, from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.”
Trump reiterated that diplomatic efforts had repeatedly failed in the lead-up to the strikes. “The regime’s conventional ballistic missile program was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas,” he said at the White House ahead of a Medal of Honor ceremony.
Those remarks were his first public comments since the U.S. and Israel launched the operation Saturday after weeks of talks intended to avert conflict. The operation — and Iran’s retaliation — resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader and some senior leadership, has drawn other Middle Eastern nations into the fighting, and has led to the deaths of four American service members in Kuwait. Trump previously released two prerecorded video messages after the conflict began.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the U.S.-Israeli action was in response to Iran’s yearslong targeting of U.S. forces and interests. “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump we’re finishing it,” he said, adding the goals are to “destroy the missile threats, destroy the navy, no nukes,” and rejecting prolonged nation-building.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the military objectives in Iran “will be difficult to achieve and, in some cases, will be difficult and gritty work.” He said additional losses are expected but that commanders will work to minimize them. Caine said some of the campaign planning took months or years, and that the initial phase targeted Iran’s command-and-control infrastructure, naval forces, ballistic missile sites and intelligence infrastructure to “leave the adversary without the ability to see, coordinate or respond effectively.”