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דיווח: הנשיא טראמפ לא שולל שליחת כוחות קרקעיים לאיראן — Report: President Trump does not rule out sending ground forces to Iran
On March 7, 2026, Channel 13 News, an Israeli television news outlet, published דיווח: הנשיא טראמפ לא שולל שליחת כוחות קרקעיים לאיראן. The page is in Hebrew. The byline is Shai Shachar (שי שחר), at 07:55 on 07.03. The NBC report it describes is dated March 6, 2026, a Friday, and the page says that report ran overnight into Saturday. An American family should care because the subject is US soldiers inside Iran, not only bombs from the air. The article says no final decision had been made.
Background for a new reader. The United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026; Washington calls its part Operation Epic Fury. Through March the argument in Washington was whether to add ground troops, meaning American soldiers physically inside Iran, to what had been an air and sea war. Israeli outlets, writing in Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French and English, followed that argument closely and often passed on American reports to their readers. This page is one of those reports.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. Channel 13 is relaying NBC. NBC's sources said President Donald Trump had shown serious interest in a limited ground force. The same Channel 13 article reports the White House saying there was no official plan at that stage.
What the article says
Shachar writes that Trump, in private talks, expressed serious interest in sending American ground forces to Iran. He attributes that to NBC, citing American officials familiar with the details. He writes that Trump discussed the idea with advisers and with Republicans outside the White House.
נשיא ארצות הברית דונלד טראמפ הביע בשיחות פרטיות עניין רציני באפשרות של שליחת כוחות קרקעיים אמריקניים לאיראן, כך דווח הלילה (בין שישי לשבת) ברשת NBC, על בסיס עדויות של גורמים אמריקנים המעורים בפרטים.
Channel 13 News, March 7, 2026. In English, that sentence says Trump expressed serious interest, in private talks, in sending American ground forces to Iran, as NBC reported overnight from American officials familiar with the details.
The article says the idea under discussion was not a broad invasion in the style of Iraq. It was a smaller deployment of soldiers for limited strategic missions inside Iranian territory. It says the same officials said no final decision had been made. It says White House officials said there was no official plan at that stage to send ground forces, while the president was keeping every military option. Channel 13 says the White House stresses that all options are on the table.
Channel 13 places the report in a war already underway. It says fighting between the United States and Israel, on one side, and Iran, on the other, had begun the previous week with a wide attack on Iranian military targets and infrastructure. It quotes Trump claiming thousands of targets had been hit, and it says the US military said the United States had struck more than 3,000 targets in the first week. It also quotes a Trump social-media post saying there would be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender, and that after a leader acceptable to the United States is chosen, the United States would work to rebuild Iran. Those lines are about the air war and the political end state the war was meant to reach.
The NBC article, opened for this page, is dated March 6, 2026. NBC says two US officials, a former US official, and another person described the talks. NBC says the talk was about a small contingent for specific purposes, not a large-scale invasion, and that the sources said Trump had not made decisions or given orders about ground troops. NBC quotes White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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.
Karoline Leavitt, as quoted by NBC News, March 6, 2026. NBC also quotes her saying Trump keeps all options open, and that anyone who claims he favors one option has no real seat at the table. Channel 13 does not print that denial, and it does not name Leavitt.
What other reporting and posts add
- NBC's own post. The American report Channel 13 relays went out on NBC News's X account on 6 March 2026: "EXCLUSIVE: Trump has privately shown serious interest in U.S. ground troops in Iran." NBC News on X. (capture: twitter/t49__v580.md)
- Trump's own words, four days earlier. On 2 March 2026 Trump told the New York Post, as the Libertarian Institute's Kyle Anzalone quoted him: "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.'" "Boots on the ground" means soldiers physically inside the country. Anzalone on X. (capture: twitter/t50__v598.md)
- A week later, a harder line. An X trending page summarizing a second New York Post interview, updated 9 March 2026, says Trump told the paper the United States is "nowhere near" sending ground forces to Iran, even to secure nuclear material at Isfahan. That is the page's summary, not a transcript. X trend page. (capture: twitter/t49__v582.md)
- The White House on a draft. AFP Fact Check, 17 March 2026, reports that press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a 10 March briefing that a draft "was not part of the administration's 'current plan'" but that the president was "keeping his options on the table." AFP Fact Check. (capture: twitter/t72__v864.md)
- An Israeli voice the same week. Benny Gantz, a former Israeli defense minister, in a clip Disclose.tv posted on 2 March 2026: "I exclude nothing. We've been waiting for 47 years. And uh, we came to a point with every necessary means should be taken to achieve our goals." Disclose.tv read that as not ruling out US or Israeli boots on the ground. His quoted words do not name American soldiers. Disclose.tv on X. (capture: twitter/t13__v149.md)
What it shows
Israeli television relayed NBC's report, one week into the war, that the president was seriously interested in American ground troops in Iran. The White House answer was that there was no official plan "at that stage." Two weeks later CBS reported detailed ground preparations, and within a month American troops were on Iranian soil in the F-15E rescue (Americans on Iranian Soil). The early interest and the later plans are one line. See Pentagon Ground Plans 2026 and No Boots on the Ground.
Check it yourself
Research captures: twitter/t49__v580.md, twitter/t49__v582.md, twitter/t50__v598.md, twitter/t13__v149.md, twitter/t72__v864.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26