Skip to main content

← Official Briefings

Pete Hegseth on Camera: "Fifteen Different Ways ... With Boots on the Ground"

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED for the briefing quotes below, taken from network video (The Hill, C-SPAN, PBS), transcripts (Rev), and major-outlet reports (Washington Post, Stars and Stripes). Items known only from a single post are marked.

Pete Hegseth is the U.S. Secretary of Defense; the administration renamed the department the "Department of War" and calls him "Secretary of War." He runs the Pentagon, which would plan and carry out any ground operation in Iran. His on-camera words are the most direct official record of how the ground option was talked about.

June 22, 2025: "not about regime change"​

The morning after the B-2 strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, Hegseth briefed with General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs:

"This mission was not and has not been about regime change. The President authorized a precision operation to neutralize the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program."

On Congress: lawmakers "were notified after the planes were safely out. We complied with the notification requirements of the War Powers Act" (Rev transcript; PBS NewsHour video).

March 2, 2026: "No, but ..."​

At the first full Pentagon briefing of the second war, asked whether the U.S. currently had troops in Iran:

"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." (The Hill on X, March 2, 2026)

The Washington Post's headline: "U.S. won't rule out sending ground troops into Iran." Its lede: Hegseth "would not rule out the possibility of sending American ground troops to Iran or articulate the Trump administration's exit strategy as the Pentagon attempts to secure a quick, decisive victory while limiting U.S. bloodshed" (Washington Post, March 2, 2026). He added: "This is not Iraq. This is not endless" (briefing summary on X).

March 4 to 13: "without boots on the ground" ... and 5,000 Marines​

  • March 4. From the podium, as a clip was captioned: "We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground... The press only wants to make the president look bad" (Derrick Evans on X, March 4, 2026). The same day Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said: "After my briefing this week and Hegseth's press conference this morning, it is clear they are widening the war in Iran."
  • March 9. "People ask, 'Boots on the ground, no boots on the ground? Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks? Go in, go in.' President Trump knows— I know—you don't tell the enemy, you don't tell the press, you don't tell anybody what your limits would be on an operation" (Military.com, March 9, 2026).
  • March 10. A clip was titled: Hegseth on potential U.S. boots on the ground in Iran, "We're willing to go as far as we need to" (YouTube, as linked on X). MODERATE (not checked against a transcript).
  • March 13. Hegseth said the U.S. was "decimating" Iran's military "in a way the world has never seen before." The Wall Street Journal then reported he had approved deploying up to 5,000 Marines to the Middle East (Shanaka Anslem Perera on X, March 13, 2026).

March 31: "fifteen different ways"​

At a Pentagon briefing, asked about ground troops, as Stars and Stripes reported:

"You can't fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do to include boots on the ground."

"Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are."

NewsNation's correspondent summarized: "He refused to rule out the possibility of putting U.S. boots on the ground and declined to offer specific updates about the timeline of this conflict" (Hannah Brandt on X, March 31, 2026).

Watch it: C-SPAN, "Secy. Hegseth and Gen. Caine on Ground Troops and the Potential for Deal with Iran"; Stars and Stripes, March 31, 2026.

April: "Back to the Stone Age," a fired chief of staff, and "two incredible rescue missions"​

  • After the President promised to take Iran "back to the stone ages," Hegseth posted five words: "Back to the Stone Age" (Shanaka Anslem Perera on X, April 2, 2026).
  • On April 3, the Economic Times reported he had fired the Army Chief of Staff, under the headline "'Effective immediately': Pete Hegseth fires Biden-appointed Army Chief of Staff ahead of US boots on Iran" (Economic Times on X). In September, Ben Swann reported that "at least two dozen senior generals and admirals" had left and that active-duty four-star Army generals had "fallen from 10 to just five," and that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was resigning after friction with Hegseth (Ben Swann on X, September 3, 2026). MODERATE for the counts (Swann's reporting).
  • On April 16, in a statement attacking the press as "the Pharisees," he praised "the not one, but two incredible rescue missions" and pointed to "the surge of Americans wanting to join the greatest military in the world" (Curtis Houck on X, April 16, 2026). See Recruiting.

May 5: Israel has "objectives ... slightly different than ours"​

Announcing Project Freedom, a naval mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz:

"American forces won't need to enter Iranian waters or airspace, it's not necessary. We're not looking for a fight."

"We're grateful that Israelis have been very capable partners at many steps of this, and they may have some objectives at times that are slightly different than ours. But there's only one hand on the wheel ultimately directing this, whether it's Project Freedom or previously Operation Epic Fury, and it's President Trump." (briefing as posted on X, May 5, 2026)

That is the Secretary of Defense, on camera, acknowledging that Israel's objectives in this war are not the same as America's.

Summer: "an advocate of escalating"​

In July a Reuters source said Hegseth "has been an advocate of escalating the military operation against Iran," and described the resumed strikes as "shaping operations": "This is helping set the stage, if needed" (as quoted by WSWS, July 16, 2026). In May, the Daily Mail reported he had been told to stand ready for a "full, large-scale assault" (Owen Gregorian on X, May 20, 2026). In September, a news brief reported that he denied a Washington Post report that the Pentagon was hiding U.S. deaths; his words were not quoted (Apexguard on X, September 22, 2026).

The press room​

Earlier in the war, the Defense Department "designated its press office a classified space and banned journalists from accessing it to meet with the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions," according to a report captured in this investigation's research. And by about March 25, reporters noted there had been no Pentagon briefing on Iran in ten days and no CENTCOM briefing since March 10, in the same weeks the 82nd Airborne and 5,000 Marines were moving.

What his words show​

Hegseth's public line has one rule: never say what the United States will not do. That is a defensible military principle. But applied to a question every American family is asking, the result is that the one official who would plan a ground war has said, on camera, that there are "15 different ways" to put boots on the ground in Iran, that the U.S. is "willing to go as far as we need to," and that Israel's objectives differ from America's, while never once saying that American soldiers will not be sent.

Status: Pete Hegseth is alive. Dan Caine, Dan Driscoll, Chuck Schumer, and Ben Swann are alive.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

Last updated on