← No Boots on the Ground
Trump: I don't have 'yips' about US boots on the ground but 'probably don't need them'
On March 2, 2026, The Times of Israel published an AFP live-blog item, Trump: I don't have 'yips' about US boots on the ground but 'probably don't need them'. The time stamp is 5:56 pm. AFP reports that President Donald Trump told the New York Post he will not rule out sending ground troops into Iran. An American family should care because he refused the sentence other presidents have used: there will be no boots on the ground. He also said they probably are not needed. Both halves are the story.
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: CONFIRMED. The New York Post, which conducted the interview, printed the same boots sentence the same day. AFP and The Times of Israel reported it.
What the article says
The Times of Israel item is short. It says Trump, on Monday, told the New York Post he will not rule out sending ground troops into Iran if necessary. It says this was one of several brief interviews since he launched the Iran operation on Saturday.
The quote AFP prints is that Trump does not have "the yips" about boots on the ground. He says every president promises there will be no boots on the ground, and that he does not say that. The next line, still in AFP's rendering, is that he says they probably are not needed, or that they would be used if they were necessary. The word "or" sits in square brackets in the Times of Israel text. That usually means the reporter supplied it. Do not treat "or" as a word Trump was recorded saying.
"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,"
President Donald Trump, to the New York Post, as reported by AFP in The Times of Israel, March 2, 2026.
What other reporting adds
A Republican senator's narrower answer, the same weekend. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, in a clip later played by Tucker Carlson: "barring that kind of unusual circumstance, Margaret, the President has no plan for any kind of large-scale ground force inside of Iran." The "unusual circumstance" was a rescue: "we have combat search and rescue assets in the region that are prepared to go in and extract any downed pilot." (YouTube, 3 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v619.md).
How Trump's answer changed over the following weeks. On 7 March: "Could there be? Possibly, for a very good reason. Have to be a very good reason." (PolitiFact, 9 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t48__v574.md). About 9 March, to the New York Post again: the US was "nowhere near sending ground forces to Iran," as an X trending page summarized it (research capture: twitter/t49__v582.md). On 19 March: "No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops." (USA Today video; research capture: twitter/t13__v147.md). On 5 April, asked by The Hill whether he would exclude ground troops: "No," as Defence Index reported on X (research capture: twitter/t50__v597.md). None of those is an order. Together they show the door was never closed.
What it shows
"Every President says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it." On 2 March 2026 the President told the country, in his own words, that the old promise was off. What followed matches the words: detailed ground preparations reported by CBS on 20 March, Marines and the 82nd Airborne sent toward Iran, and more than 90 Americans on Iranian ground in April. See No Boots on the Ground and Americans on Iranian Soil.
Check it yourself
- The Times of Israel item is at https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-i-dont-have-yips-about-us-boots-on-the-ground-but-probably-dont-need-them/.
- PolitiFact on draft and ground-troop statements, 9 March 2026.
- Tom Cotton clip as played by Tucker Carlson, YouTube, 3 March 2026.
- The interview it cites is Steven Nelson, Trump won't rule out sending US troops into Iran 'if necessary', New York Post, March 2, 2026. The Post prints the same boots sentence. Its second sentence is: "I say, 'probably don't need them' [or] 'if they were necessary.'" The brackets are in the Post's text too. The Post also says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at a Pentagon press conference that morning, said no American troops were currently inside Iran, and that he did not rule the possibility out. Hegseth's quoted line in that Post story is about scale, not a ban: "You don't have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years."
- Research captures: twitter/t13__v147.md, twitter/t48__v574.md, twitter/t49__v582.md, twitter/t50__v597.md, twitter/t52__v619.md.
Status: Donald Trump is alive. Pete Hegseth is alive.
Last Updated: 2026-09-26