Updated on: March 2, 2026 / 7:51 PM EST / CBS News
Washington — President Trump said the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran represented the “last best chance” to address the threat posed by the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missiles and nuclear program, and he reiterated that the administration expects the campaign to last about four to five weeks while retaining the ability to go much longer.
Speaking at a Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Trump said Iran ignored U.S. warnings to stop pursuing nuclear weapons and has been rapidly expanding a conventional ballistic missile arsenal that poses a “very clear, colossal threat” to the United States and its overseas forces. “This was our last best chance to strike, what we’re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” he told the audience.
The president outlined four objectives for the operation: destroy Iran’s missile capabilities and ability to produce new missiles; annihilate its navy — saying 10 ships have already been knocked out and are “at the bottom of the sea”; prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; and stop the regime from arming, funding and directing terrorist groups beyond its borders.
In an earlier interview with The New York Post, Trump declined to rule out deploying ground troops, saying he would use them “if they were necessary” and that he does not promise “no boots on the ground.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a Monday briefing, likewise would not rule out ground forces. He said there are no U.S. service members currently on the ground in Iran and declined to elaborate on future options, saying, “We’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.”
Trump said he expects the U.S. military to “easily prevail” and acknowledged the timeline could extend beyond initial projections. “We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes, we will always, and we have right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks. But we have capability to go far longer than that,” he said, adding, “We’ll do whatever.”
The president returned to the White House Sunday evening after monitoring the initial phase of operations at Mar-a-Lago. He said the U.S. military was continuing “large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime.”
Four U.S. service members have been killed so far in Operation Epic Fury, the military says. Hegseth said the troops were killed by a munition that struck a tactical operations center in Kuwait. Trump paid tribute to the fallen, saying, “In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people.” He warned there would likely be more American casualties and said combat operations “will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Israeli strikes at the outset of the conflict killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with dozens of other senior officials, the U.S. military said. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more than 1,000 targets were hit in the first 24 hours of the bombing campaign. Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel, Gulf states and U.S. facilities in the region.
Pressed about the four- to five-week timeline, Hegseth dismissed such estimates as a “gotcha-type question,” saying the president has wide latitude to discuss timing — “four weeks, two weeks, six weeks” — and that military forces will execute the objectives set out at the president’s command.