US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said “boots on the ground” may not be necessary, with tensions escalating in the Middle East as Washington trades attacks with Iran.
In an interview with NewsNation journalist Kellie Meyer, Trump said there will soon be retaliation for the attack on the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and for the deaths of US service members. As of Monday, six US troops were killed in action so far.
The statement was a deviation from Trump’s earlier claim that he does not “have the yips” for having boots on the ground. After launching Saturday’s strikes on Iran, Trump had told NY Post, “Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it. I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.”