Donald Trump laid out the rationale for the U.S. joining Israel in attacking Iran, while vowing that even though the projections have been for four to five weeks of military action, his administration will do “whatever it takes.”
“We’re already substantially ahead out of our time projections,” Trump said. “But whatever the time is, it’s okay. Whatever it takes…Right from the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that.”
The president has not ruled out the deployment of ground troops.
In his remarks, before a Medal of Honor ceremony, the president said that the objectives were to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability, hobble its Navy, prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that the regime cannot direct armies outside of its border.
He said that Iran’s ballistic missile program posed a “very clear, colossal threat.” What’s unclear — and the subject of much debate — is how imminent a danger the Iranian regime posed to the United States. Trump called the Iranian regime a “threat,” but also said that the the U.S. was “very nearly under threat.”
“We continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people, and a threat indeed it is.”
Trump claimed that Iran was developing missile capability that could “soon” reach the United States. Experts have raised doubts about the claim, per Politifact.
The president said that even though the previous U.S. strikes on Iran resulted in the “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program, “we warned Iran not to make any attempt to rebuild at a different location because they weren’t able to use the ones we so powerfully blew up. But they ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Trump announced the military action in a Truth Social post early in the morning on Saturday. He has since posted other messages, and spoken to a dozen or so media outlets by phone since then.
The president ordered the launch of the attacks without congressional authorization, yielding an outcry from Democrats that the Constitution vests the power to declare with Congress.
In his remarks, Trump also did not mention regime change as an objective. In his remarks early Saturday, he said to the Iranian people, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
After his initial remarks, Trump pivoted to talk about the East Room curtains and the White House ballroom, set to be constructed after he ordered the tearing down of the East Wing last year.
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