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President Donald Trump said on Thursday during a press conference in the Oval Office that he would not commit to sending troops into the Middle East at this time.
“No, I’m not putting troops anywhere,” President Trump said when asked about such a potential deployment. “And if I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you, but I’m not putting troops.”
The president’s comments came amid a bilateral meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who expressed her deep support for President Trump amid the Iranian combat mission.
“I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world,” she stated, via a translator. “And to do so, I am ready to reach out to many of the partners in the international community to achieve our objective together. So today, I came here at the White House to directly convey this message to you.”
President Trump’s statement about possible troop deployment may assuage some Americans’ deeply rooted fears about mission creep within Operation Epic Fury, as the United States is nearly at the three-week mark of the war against Iran, which it entered with its joint military partner, Israel.
According to Axios, just days ago, the U.S. military sent the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault warship, along with thousands of Marines, toward the Iranian region. These reports naturally stoked domestic fears about a widening conflict, but the Pentagon has remained clear that this is a limited-scope operation.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth assured Americans on Thursday, “The media here – not all of it, but much of it – wants you to think, just 19 days into this conflict, that we are somehow spinning toward an endless abyss, or a forever war, or a quagmire. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
He added, “Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched foolish politicians like Bush, Obama, and Biden squander American credibility, treasure, and troops – this is NOT those wars. President Trump knows better. Epic Fury is different; it’s laser-focused, it’s decisive.”