← Air War Is Not Enough

Trump weighing options for expanding military operations in Iran

On 15 July 2026, CNN published Trump weighing options for expanding military operations in Iran, by Kevin Liptak. The article says President Donald Trump was being briefed on ways to widen the war, including taking Iran's oil island of Kharg and bombing an underground site called Pickaxe Mountain. On Fox News he said other people would do the ground campaign for the United States, and he did not say who. An American family should care because a ground campaign is the step that puts soldiers ashore, and because the president's sentence leaves open whether those soldiers would be Americans.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. CNN attributes the ground-campaign sentence to the President's own Fox News interview, and the Kharg Island and Pickaxe Mountain options to two people familiar with the Situation Room talks. The President named no country, unit, or date for the "other people."

What the article says

CNN says Trump had been receiving options for a larger military operation in Iran, including in a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday. That meeting, CNN says, focused on how to loosen Iran's hold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane oil tankers use to leave the Persian Gulf. Two people familiar with the matter are CNN's sources for the options.

CNN says Trump had said in public that he intends to hit Iran harder over the coming week, including threats against civilian infrastructure and possible energy targets. In private, CNN says, he was going through scenarios with senior officials, looking for pressure that would make Tehran accept US demands after earlier pressure had failed.

CNN says that over the five days before the article, the United States struck Iranian positions along the strait every day. On Wednesday that included Greater Tunb, a small island in the Strait of Hormuz that CNN says Iran has used as a military base. The name is the island's. It is not a political project. Officials told CNN the strikes were meant to weaken Iran's ability to stop commercial ships. They also said that destroying missile launchers and radars could prepare the ground for the larger operations Trump was considering.

The two officials told CNN that Trump was weighing an operation to take Kharg Island, Iran's main oil-export hub, and to bomb underground complexes at Pickaxe Mountain, which CNN says are believed to be tied to Iran's nuclear program. CNN says he repeated his interest in both targets in interviews that week, but suggested that a ground operation to take Kharg might be left to another country.

"We have other people that will do the ground campaign for us."

President Donald Trump, on Fox News, as CNN reported on 15 July 2026. CNN says he did not explain further.

CNN says Trump has given public and private signs that he is ready to escalate, and has then backed off. It says he was frustrated that Iran was not giving in on his nuclear demands and was still restricting ships in the strait. It says he has swung between doubting that Iran will negotiate and claiming Tehran is ready to bargain. On Wednesday, at a defense industry event in Pennsylvania, CNN quotes him saying Iran wants to settle badly, and that the United States will find out whether it settles or "finish it off." A week earlier, CNN says, he called further talks a waste of time.

CNN also reports a three-hour interview Vice President JD Vance gave Joe Rogan on Tuesday. Vance is the administration's lead negotiator with Iran, CNN says. Vance said the war will not be won by military force alone. He said the United States can bomb radar, drones, and missiles, and that it is still too easy to shoot at ships in the strait, so Washington has to be willing to talk.

What other reporting and posts add

The same sentence, in a longer frame. The World Socialist Web Site, summarizing that week's Wall Street Journal and Fox reporting, quoted the same Trump line, "Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us," and added his answer on seizing Kharg: "If we degrade them far enough and deep enough back, I would do that." It says Trump called a US seizure of Kharg unlikely but would not rule it out. WSWS, 16 July 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)

Candidates for "other people," as the captures show them.

• Israel said it would not be its own infantry. In March, Israeli TV's Channel 12 was reported as saying Israel would support a US ground operation "with airstrikes, intelligence, and airpower, but not infantry." X trend, 30 March 2026. (captures: twitter/t13__v148.md, twitter/t13__v150.md) Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Leiter, had said on 8 March: "our preference is for the boots on the ground to be those of the Iranians." Politico, 8 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md)
• Kurdish fighters. A plan for Iranian Kurdish groups based in Iraq to move into Iran was widely reported in March, but a September AI-assistant reply on X said it "never materialized" and "collapsed," and a post summarizing Israeli reporting said "A joint plan for a Kurdish invasion of Iran collapsed after it leaked to media." Neither is an official source. @grok, 21 September 2026. (captures: twitter/t01__v010.md, twitter/t13__v156.md) See also the Jewish Chronicle's report on US air cover for Kurds.
• Iranians themselves. Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last shah, told Fox News in September: "We're not asking America to put troops on the ground, as the president has said." "The boots on the ground are the people of Iran themselves." @urgentintel summary, 23 September 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md) See X: Pahlavi, Iranian boots, not American.

What it shows

The President said it himself: "Sometimes you need a ground campaign." Then: "we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us," and he did not say who. The candidates on the record had already stepped back. Israel said through its press that it would supply "airstrikes, intelligence, and airpower, but not infantry," and through its ambassador that it wanted Iranian boots. The Kurdish plan collapsed. Pahlavi said the boots should be Iranians. That leaves the Americans already in range: about 50,000 in the region, Marines and the 82nd Airborne among them, with the Situation Room discussing Kharg and Hormuz territory "using U.S. troops" that same week (see Air War Is Not Enough, Israel Keeps Its Infantry Home, and The Buildup).

Check it yourself

Trump weighing options for expanding military operations in Iran, CNN, Kevin Liptak, 15 July 2026. No second source was opened for this page.

Status: Donald Trump is alive. JD Vance is alive.

Context for a newcomer: the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026. A spring ceasefire and a written "memorandum of understanding" broke down in early July, and US strikes resumed. This article is from the week when the question of American soldiers landing on Iranian islands came back. The sentence that made headlines was Trump's: someone else would do the fighting on the ground. The page below collects who that "someone else" might be, according to the reporting and posts available.

Research captures: twitter/t56__v668.md, twitter/t13__v148.md, twitter/t13__v150.md, twitter/t13__v145.md, twitter/t01__v010.md, twitter/t13__v156.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26