President Donald Trump said he would not rule out sending U.S. ground troops into Iran “if necessary,” telling the New York Post he was “not ruling anything out” as Washington and Jerusalem press their campaign under the banner of Operation Roaring Lion. The comments, reported by News Source, mark a notable shift in how publicly open-ended the administration is willing to be about escalation—while also placing clear limits on the timeline and scope of what U.S. officials say they are seeking.
Trump’s remarks came as both the U.S. and Israel escalated air and strike activity aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to field weapons of mass destruction and long-range missile forces. According to the report, Trump portrayed the campaign as a race against time—one in which rapid attacks on senior Iranian figures are intended to disrupt decision-making and prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. In parallel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said separately that the opening wave of the operation killed dozens of senior Iranian commanders in quick succession.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to frame the campaign as purposeful rather than open-ended. He said the operation would not be “complete overnight,” acknowledging that the targets and objectives would take time to dismantle. At the same time, he rejected the notion that the effort would become an “endless war,” describing a defined set of goals focused on destroying Iranian missile capabilities, naval assets, and other security infrastructure.
Israel’s military campaign, as described in the same context, has been both wide-ranging and intensive. The IDF said it has struck hundreds of targets in Iran, including ballistic missiles, missile launchers, air defense sites, and leadership targets. It also claimed that roughly 2,500 bombs were dropped on approximately 600 Iranian targets since fighting began, including strikes that it said eliminated ballistic missiles, launchers, and air defense assets.
Beyond the target list, officials have emphasized the scale and coordination of allied air power. In related reporting, Fox News quoted Hegseth describing a posture of sustained air operations—“day and night”—in which U.S. and Israeli forces would fly over Tehran and other parts of Iran targeting missile networks. The reporting characterized the operation as among the most coordinated allied air campaigns in modern warfare, with Israeli aircraft striking missile launch sites and air defense systems across western and central Iran.
That coordinated campaign, according to Fox News, drew on intelligence gathered by Israel’s Intelligence Directorate and the CIA. The same report said Israeli strikes were designed in an opening phase to hit hundreds of sites simultaneously. It also highlighted that the attack campaign triggered further Iranian missile and drone attacks, with Israeli emergency services reporting that 13 civilians had been killed and more than 1,000 injured as of Wednesday night, and the United Arab Emirates reporting three deaths and 68 injuries since the war started.
As the air campaign continues, U.S. planning appears to be moving beyond strikes alone. A separate report cited in the verified record says that the Pentagon has prepared for the possibility of deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran. The Jerusalem Post reported, citing CBS News and multiple sources, that senior U.S. military officials had submitted detailed preparation requests to President Trump while Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime continues—describing the story as developing at the time of publication.
The existence of such preparation requests underscores why Trump’s “not ruling anything out” language is drawing attention. Even if U.S. objectives remain framed around air and missile-focused destruction, the administration’s public openness to ground options suggests contingency planning for scenarios in which air power alone does not rapidly achieve strategic effects.
Analysts and officials described the broader military approach as a shift in how modern wars are conducted—less a sequence of discrete battles and more a synchronized, multi-domain effort. Another installment from The Jerusalem Post highlighted what it called unprecedented, fully integrated multi-domain operations by the U.S. and Israel, with allied air power operating in formation against Iranian military targets. The report also quoted a figure associated with the assessment explaining the logic of a “zero-sum equation”: every ballistic missile, cruise missile, or drone Iran launches reduces its finite stockpile.
That concept may help explain the operational emphasis on sustained pressure. If Iran is forced to expend missiles and drones in response to allied strikes, its capacity to sustain pressure against American, Israeli, and Gulf targets could diminish over time. The same analysis suggested that U.S. and Israeli forces are likely destroying a substantial portion of Iran’s ballistic missile capability, while indicating that Iran’s drone arsenal may be less affected.
At the center of the political debate is the question of what comes after air strikes. Trump’s comments do not confirm an imminent ground invasion; they instead signal that the U.S. is keeping escalation pathways open. Still, coupled with reporting about Pentagon preparation requests, the message is clear: U.S. planners are considering more than one route to achieving goals tied to missile networks, naval and security infrastructure, and the broader effort to prevent a nuclear breakthrough.
For now, the campaign’s battlefield character remains dominated by air strikes and counter-missile action, with both sides reporting rapid operational tempo. But the public language—paired with reported contingency planning—suggests that the conflict’s trajectory may depend on how quickly allied strikes degrade Iranian capabilities and whether Iran’s remaining systems, leadership, and ability to sustain missile and drone campaigns can be reduced in time to avert further escalation.
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