Trump vague on Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ as he refuses to rule out US troop deployment

Original article by Hugo Lowell aboard Air Force One

Donald Trump on Saturday offered only a vague description of what he meant by his demand for an unconditional surrender by Iran’s current regime, while leaving open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground but ruling out asking Kurdish forces to mount an invasion.

“I said unconditional. It’s where they cry uncle or when they can’t fight any long longer and there’s nobody around to cry uncle — that could happen too,” Trump said when pressed by the Guardian aboard Air Force One.

The lack of specifics in Trump’s response made it difficult to ascertain his political endgame for the conflict, an issue that has dogged the White House as it faces scrutiny about what the president wants from Iran and how he would play a role in selecting its next leader.

Trump has been more consistent with his military objectives and has said for days he could send US troops. Still, he caveated using ground troops to secure the enriched uranium, believed to be stored at Iran’s nuclear sites the US bombed last year, as a possibility for later in the conflict.

“We haven’t talked about it,” Trump said. “At some point maybe we will. It would be a great thing. Right now we’re just decimating them. We haven’t gone after it but something we could do later on. We wouldn’t do it now.”

It also appeared that Trump had made a final decision on not using the Kurds to mount an invasion, acknowledging that it would complicate a fraught situation despite the idea buzzing around Washington after news outlets reported they had been armed by the CIA.

“I don’t want the Kurds going in,” Trump said. “They’re willing to go in, but I’ve told them I don’t want them going in. The war’s complicated enough without getting the Kurds involved.”

The president’s extended remarks came hours after he traveled to Dover air force base in Delaware to attend, with JD Vance and defense secretary Pete Hegseth, the so-called dignified transfer of six US service members killed in the opening days of his war against Iran.

The dignified transfer took place under a hazy gray sky that enveloped the entirety of the base and the C17 Globemaster transport aircraft that carried the deceased, a scene only punctuated by Trump’s bright white baseball cap emblazoned with the gold letters “USA”.

Trump saluted each of the six flag-draped transfer cases as he watched two teams carry them into waiting vans. Afterward, he told reporters the moment had not made him think twice about continuing with the Iran war.

“No, we’re winning the war by a lot. We decimated their whole evil empire. It will continue I’m sure for a little while but I’m very proud of the people,” Trump said. Later, he added deaths were “a part of war”.

The conflict has only expanded since Trump gave the green light for the US to join Israel in conducting airstrikes against Iran one week ago, including a series of strikes that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been meeting with other top leaders at a compound in Tehran.

In the initial days of the war, Trump suggested in interviews that the campaign would last roughly four weeks. But the administration has since shifted its position, and some officials have warned it could last for months.

Trump was non-committal on how long he expected the war to continue on Saturday, saying he didn’t know. “Whatever it takes,” Trump answered to reporters, even as he later described the war as a “short excursion”.

He also blamed Iran for strikes that destroyed a girl’s elementary school in the south of the country that killed at least 175 people, many of them children. A Pentagon investigation is ongoing but forensic analysis by the New York Times, CNN and the Associated Press gave it a high likelihood it was a precision strike by the US that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said.

After the defense secretary declined to back the president, saying only that the matter was under investigation, Trump repeated his claim. “It was done by Iran. They’re very inaccurate as you know with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran,” he insisted.