President Trump told the New York Post on Monday that he’s not ruling out sending U.S. ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary.” “I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing,” Trump said, according to New York Post correspondent Steven Nelson. NEW: President Trump tells me he won’t rule out sending US troops into Iran Trump also said: 'I don't care about polling. I have to do the right thing'https://t.co/L5HOrdx1UY — Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) March 2, 2026 More from the New York Post: “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,” Trump said after launching strikes Saturday to decapitate Iran’s military and political leadership. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’” Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday that he estimated the war would last “four weeks or so,” but hinted to The Post Monday that that timeframe could be shortened. “It’s going to go pretty quickly,” he said. “We’re right on schedule, way ahead of schedule in terms of leadership — 49 killed — and that was, you know, going to take, we figured, at least four weeks, and we did it in one day.” Trump also said he wasn’t concerned about Iran using terrorism to repay America for the weekend’s attack. “We’ll take it out. Whatever. It’s like everything else, we’ll take it out,” Trump said. The president said he made the final decision to strike “after the final talks” Thursday in Geneva — in part because of intelligence that Iran was surreptitiously resuming work on nuclear projects. “We had very serious negotiations, and they were there, and then they pulled back,” he said. According to CBS News, Trump said the operation conducted with Israel is the “last best chance” to address the threat of Iran’s ballistic missiles and nuclear program. “This was our last best chance to strike, what we’re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Trump said, according to the outlet. “And they are indeed sick and sinister,” he added. More below: Trump on Iran: "This was our last best chance to strike—what we're doing right now—and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime." pic.twitter.com/JqURJRU23c — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 2, 2026 CBS News shared further: The president said the Iranian leadership “already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.” The objectives for the mission, he said, “are clear,” listing four of them. “First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, and you see that happening on an hourly basis, and their capacity to produce brand-new ones,” he said. “Second, we’re annihilating their Navy. We’ve knocked out already 10 ships. They’re at the bottom of the sea. Third, we’re ensuring that the world’s number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. … And finally, we’re ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”