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No 'boots on the ground' Trump says, cites 'unlimited time' for new Iran deal

On 27 June 2019, Israel Hayom published No 'boots on the ground' Trump says, cites 'unlimited time' for new Iran deal. No reporter's name appears on the page. The news is that President Donald Trump called off retaliatory airstrikes on Iran and said he was not talking about American troops on the ground. An American family should care because this is a plain presidential denial on the question of US soldiers in Iran. It is from 2019, years before the later bombing, and it only records what he said then.

Background for new readers: This article is from June 2019, during Trump's first term, after the United States left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and tensions spiked over attacks on tankers and a downed US drone. Nothing on this page is about the later wars. In June 2025 US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and on 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. This page is here so readers can compare what Trump said about ground troops in 2019 with what he said in 2026. This article is filed under No Boots on the Ground; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The claim being rated is Trump's June 2019 statement, reported by Israel Hayom from a Fox Business interview, that he was not talking about boots on the ground.

What the article says​

The article says the United States called off retaliatory airstrikes on Iran that Wednesday. Trump said he would not put "boots on the ground" if the United States took military action against Iran. He also said there was "unlimited time" to try to reach an agreement with Tehran.

The setting was the tanker and drone crisis of 2019, not a ground campaign. The article says Washington accused Iran, or groups it called Iran's proxies, of attacks in May and June on six tankers in the Gulf. It says Iran denied those accusations. It says Iran shot down a US drone that Tehran claimed was in Iranian airspace, and that Washington denied the drone was there. Trump called off the retaliatory strikes at the last minute. The article says he did so because too many people would have died.

Asked on Fox Business Network whether a war was brewing, Trump said: "I hope we don't but we're in a very strong position if something should happen."

"I'm not talking boots on the ground," Trump said.

President Donald Trump, on Fox Business, as quoted by Israel Hayom, 27 June 2019.

The article's next sentence is also his: "I'm just saying if something would happen, it wouldn't last very long."

Speaking later to a gathering of conservatives, he said of a new agreement with Iran, "If it doesn't happen, that's fine with me," and, "I have unlimited time, as far as I'm concerned."

The rest of the piece is about the 2015 nuclear deal, US sanctions, and Iran's warning that it was about to pass a limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium. Iran's UN ambassador told the Security Council that Iran would no longer carry the whole burden of preserving that deal. European governments, the article says, were trying to keep the agreement alive. None of that is a report of American soldiers in Iran.

Status: Donald Trump is alive.

What other reporting adds​

The month before. In May 2019 The New York Times reported that the White House was reviewing plans for "sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East." Commentator Malcolm Nance answered: "Any war with Iran would require 500,000 troops and the return to the draft." (Malcolm Nance on X, 14 May 2019, quoting The New York Times; research capture: twitter/t48__v565.md). The 120,000 is the Times figure for troops in the region; the 500,000 and the draft are Nance's estimate.

Seven years later, a different line. On 2 March 2026, two days into the new war, Trump told the New York Post: "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 … I say 'probably don't need them' [or] 'if they were necessary.'" (as quoted by Yahoo News, 2 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v618.md). In 2019 he said "I'm not talking boots on the ground." In 2026 he said he does not make that promise.

What it shows​

This is the no-boots promise in its first form, in June 2019. The same promise was repeated in June 2025, days before US bombers struck Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and again in January 2026, weeks before the war began. Each time, the next step came anyway. By 2026 the Pentagon had drawn up plans for ground operations in Iran and more than 90 Americans had fought on Iranian soil. See No Boots on the Ground.

Check it yourself​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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