WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has told his national security team that he would want any U.S. military action in Iran to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime and not spark a sustained war that dragged on for weeks or months, according to a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House.
“If he does something, he wants it to be definitive,” one of the people familiar with the discussions said.
But Trump’s advisers have so far not been able to guarantee to him that the regime would quickly collapse after an American military strike, the U.S. official and two people familiar with the discussions said, and there is concern that the U.S. may not have all the assets in the region it would need to guard against what administration officials expect would be an aggressive Iranian response.
Those dynamics could lead Trump to approve a more limited U.S. military offensive in Iran, at least initially, while reserving options to escalate — if he decides to take any military action at all, said the U.S. official and one of the people familiar with the discussions. They said that it is a fast-evolving situation and that as of Wednesday afternoon no decisions had been made. During a visit to Detroit on Tuesday, Trump told protesting Iranians that “help is on its way” and called the situation in the country “fragile.”
Asked for comment on the details of Trump’s deliberations, a White House official pointed to Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon.
Trump told reporters then that he had learned the Iranian regime had stopped killing protesters and halted plans for executions, either of which he has said could trigger a U.S. military response. “We have been informed by very important sources on the other side, and they said the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place,” Trump said Wednesday. “I hope it’s true. Who knows?”
Asked whether that meant military action is now off the table, Trump said: “We’re going to watch and see what the process is.”
The U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and one person close to the White House said Trump is ready to follow through on his repeated promises to protesters in Iran that the U.S. would intervene militarily to support them in their efforts to topple the regime.
On Tuesday, he outlined for his national security team what he wants any U.S. military action in Iran to achieve, and the Defense Department tailored options to meet his objectives, according to the U.S. official, said a second U.S. official and the person familiar with the discussions. Those tailored options were set to be presented to Trump on Wednesday, said the first U.S. official and one of the people familiar with the discussions.
Asked about Trump’s giving his aides guidance about his objectives in Iran, the White House official said in a statement: “All options are at President Trump’s disposal to address the situation in Iran," adding that U.S. military operations in Iran last year and in Venezuela this month show "he means what he says.”
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A second White House official said Trump joined a meeting about Iran that was chaired by Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday afternoon after Trump returned from Michigan. Trump was briefed in part on the latest estimated death toll among protesters in Iran and asked for more information on that topic, this official said.
U.S. Central Command had prepared military options for Trump, which were presented to him in recent days and now have been refined, according to the U.S. official and another person familiar with the discussions.
The developments follow a series of meetings about Iran this week, with senior Trump administration officials holding hours of discussions at the White House on Tuesday to hash out what U.S. military goals would be for a strike in Iran and how Tehran might retaliate, NBC News has reported.
Among the concerns officials have discussed is that an Iranian regime, weakened from weeks of protests across the country and facing potential collapse, could be far more dangerous in retaliating against U.S. forces in the region and allies, such as Israel, said the U.S. official, one of the people close to the White House and one of the people familiar with the discussions.
When Iran retaliated against the U.S. air base in Qatar after strikes on its nuclear facilities in June, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration was warned in advance, and American forces were unharmed.
On Wednesday, hundreds of U.S. troops departed Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, heading to a safer location in case U.S. action leads to an Iranian response, NBC News reported. The U.S. is taking other precautionary measures throughout the region to keep troops, civilians and dependents safe, a second U.S. official and a third person familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. military has not surged troops and assets into the region to support large-scale action in Iran, as it did ahead of Operation Midnight Hammer. But the U.S. does have aircraft, ships and personnel in the region to carry out targeted or limited strikes in Iran.
