Trump Considers Deploying Ground Troops to Iran as War Enters its Second Week

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying U.S. Troops on the ground inside of Iran, according to two U.S. Officials, a former U.S. Official and another person with knowledge of the conversations. The potential move comes as the conflict between the U.S. And Iran enters its second week, with six American service members killed and 18 wounded in counterattacks according to the Pentagon.

Trump has discussed the idea of deploying ground troops with aides and Republican officials outside the White House while outlining his vision for a post-war Iran in which Iran’s uranium is secure and the U.S. And a modern Iranian regime cooperate on oil production, similar to the current dynamic between the U.S. And Venezuela, the sources said.

The president’s comments expressing serious interest in deploying ground troops have not focused on a large-scale ground invasion of Iran, but rather on the idea of a little contingent of U.S. Troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes, the U.S. Officials, the former U.S. Official and the person with knowledge of the discussions said. Trump has not made any decisions or given any orders related to ground troops.

White House Response

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “This story is based on assumptions from anonymous sources who are not part of the President’s national security team and are clearly not read into these discussions.” Leavitt added, “President Trump always, wisely keeps all options open, but anyone trying to insinuate he is in favor of one option or another proves they have no real seat at the table.”

Trump’s Public Statements and War Timeline

Publicly, Trump has not ruled out putting U.S. “boots on the ground” in Iran, though the war has so far consisted only of an air campaign. He said in an interview with the New York Post this week, “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground.” He said while other presidents have ruled out boots on the ground, “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’” according to the New York Times. Trump expects the war, which began on Saturday, to last four to five weeks, while leaving open the possibility of it continuing indefinitely.

Potential Scenarios for Troop Deployment

Foreign policy experts have offered various scenarios in which the president might choose to deploy U.S. Troops on the ground in Iran. Joel Rayburn, a former Trump administration official and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, suggested, “You could envision them doing some sort of special operations insertions if there were targets that they absolutely needed to seize out or reduce but didn’t lend themselves to bombardment.”

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the Iran program senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that in the event of a collapse of the Iranian regime, U.S. Forces could be used to help facilitate a dynamic similar to Venezuela or to secure Iran’s uranium stockpile.

Nate Swanson, a senior fellow and director of the Iran Strategy Project at the Atlantic Council, said the U.S. Could rethink its military options if Iran “thinks it can win a war of attrition,” potentially leading to the deployment of ground forces or arming opponents of the Iranian regime.

Iran’s Response

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Iran is prepared for U.S. Ground troops. “We are waiting for them,” Araghchi said, adding that “we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a massive disaster for them.”