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As war widens, Trump says US has yet to launch largest strikes on Iran

On 2 March 2026, the third day of the war, The Times of Israel published "As war widens, Trump says US has yet to launch largest strikes on Iran". Emanuel Fabian, Jacob Magid, Lazar Berman, and news agencies wrote it. Most of the article is a war dispatch: missiles, Gulf states, and Hezbollah. The part that matters for American families is smaller. President Donald Trump would not make the promise presidents usually make, that no American boots would go onto the ground. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the same day, said this was not another Iraq war.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under No Boots on the Ground; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The rating covers Trump's refusal to promise "no boots," as reported on day three of the war, alongside Hegseth's rejection of an open-ended occupation.

What the article says​

The paper says the joint US-Israeli campaign began on Saturday. It reports that Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the aim was to give Iranians room to topple their government. The article reports that the opening strikes killed Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. On Monday, the paper says, Trump named narrower goals: ballistic missiles, the nuclear program, the navy, and support for proxy groups. He said the largest wave of strikes had not started. He told CNN, "The big one is coming soon."

The paper says he did not rule out ground troops, and that he thought the campaign could last about four weeks. It also says polls, which it does not name, showed the war was unpopular in the United States.

I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it.

Donald Trump, to The New York Post, as reported by The Times of Israel, 2 March 2026.

Asked for a timeline, Trump told CNN he had always thought it would be four weeks, and that the operation was a little ahead of schedule. He also said the United States could go far longer than the four to five weeks that had been projected.

At his own press conference that Monday, Hegseth would not give a timeline. He said, "This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change." He said ambitions were realistic, not utopian. In a reference to the Iraq war, he said, "This is not Iraq. This is not endless." He also said, "No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise." He acknowledged there would be more casualties. The paper says six American service members had been killed since the war began. It ties those deaths to the regional fight, including remains recovered after Iran's opening strikes in the region, not to a US ground incursion into Iran. Three US planes were shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire, and the paper says nobody was killed in those shootdowns.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the first day of strikes. The article says 100 US aircraft hit Iran in one wave and that 1,000 targets were hit in the first 24 hours. That is an air campaign. The article does not describe American soldiers inside Iran on that day.

What other reporting adds​

Hegseth's exact answer. Asked that Monday whether the United States had ground troops in Iran, Hegseth said: "No, but we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do. I think it's one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American enemies, by the way, here's exactly what, here's exactly how long we'll go, here's exactly how far we'll go, here's what we're willing to do and not do—it's foolishness." (as reported by Yahoo News, 2 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v618.md). Jewish Insider summarized the same day: "While officials emphasized that there are currently no American boots on the ground in Iran, Hegseth declined to rule out the possibility" (Jewish Insider; research capture: twitter/t52__v617.md).

A senator's version. Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a television interview that weekend that the only exception was rescuing a downed pilot: "barring that kind of unusual circumstance, Margaret, the President has no plan for any kind of large-scale ground force inside of Iran." (transcript of the clip as played by Tucker Carlson, YouTube, 3 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v619.md). Carlson's point was that "large-scale" leaves room for a small force.

A senator's answer. A Threads account under Senator Patty Murray's name, a Washington Democrat, answered Trump's New York Post interview the same day: "If Trump won't rule out boots on the ground, then Congress needs to." "NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND." "NO WAR WITH IRAN." (Threads, 2 March 2026; the capture notes the handle matches her but the account was not verified; research capture: twitter/t50__v598.md).

What it shows​

On day three, the President broke with the usual promise: every president says there will be no boots on the ground, and he would not. His Defense Secretary rejected a nation-building war but not ground action. That refusal was the first step of a pattern. Within four weeks CBS reported detailed Pentagon preparations for ground forces in Iran, Marines and the 82nd Airborne were sent to the region, and in April more than 90 Americans fought on Iranian soil to rescue two airmen. See No Boots on the Ground and Americans on Iranian Soil.

Check it yourself​

The New York Post quote and Hegseth's words are confirmed in other outlets' reports of the same day, listed above and quoted in the section "What other reporting adds."

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Pete Hegseth is alive. Benjamin Netanyahu is alive. Dan Caine is alive. Ali Khamenei is deceased (2026), according to this article.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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