Donald Trump says he will not get bored of waging a war with Iran even as the casualties mount, signaling that America could be involved in the conflict for longer than he first claimed.
After initially saying that the U.S. could be embroiled in the war for four to five weeks, the president now risks further enraging his MAGA base by suggesting the timeline is indefinite.
“Whatever it takes,” the five-time draft dodger said on Monday as the U.S. death toll climbed to four.
“Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capabilities to go far longer than that. We’ll do it.
“Somebody said today, they said: ‘Oh, well, the resident wants to do it really quickly; after that, he’ll get bored’. I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this… No, I don’t bet bored. I never get bored.”
The comments, made at the White House at the start of a Medal of Honor ceremony, were the first time the president has addressed the issue publicly since the strikes were first launched on Saturday.
Hours earlier, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth did not rule out deploying U.S. ground troops to Iran as tensions escalate, and refused to explain what the exit strategy might be.
“We will go as far as we need to go to advance American interests,” he said.
The president’s remarks on Iran lasted about 10 minutes. Immediately after, he pivoted to his pet project—his $400 million ballroom renovation—and how much First Lady Melania Trump despised the noise.
“See that nice drape?” he asked the audience as he pointed to the East Room decor. “In about a year and a half from now, you’re going to see a very, very beautiful building.”
Since announcing the attacks in a Truth Social video over the weekend, the president has offered conflicting visions of how the war could end and who should take over in Iran after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s autocratic supreme leader, was killed.
Four American soldiers have also killed so far, while three U.S. jets have also been shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses in what the U.S. military called an “apparent friendly fire incident,” with the crew members brought to safety.
In his remarks on Monday, Trump doubled down on claims that he attacked Iran because the nation was building up its nuclear capabilities.
“In addition, 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,” Trump said.
However, in closed-door briefings with congressional staff this weekend, Pentagon officials acknowledged there was no intelligence indicating that Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against U.S. forces before the U.S. and Israeli attacks.
Trump also claimed months ago that the U.S. military had completely “obliterated” the regime’s nuclear program.
Lawmakers from both parties have publicly questioned the administration’s failure to obtain formal congressional authorization for the operation, which violates the Constitution.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said it was clear that Iran’s strategy had shifted.
“They were targeting Israel, but the real target now is the United States,” he said in a briefing call with the Daily Beast.
“Their calculation, their metric of success, is not that they necessarily can win the war. They just need to get as close as possible to destroy Trump’s presidency before they lose the war.”
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