American troops will remain in the Middle East until current military operations are completely finished, President Donald Trump stated on Sunday.
Speaking during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump dismissed concerns about the financial and human costs of the ongoing deployment, which currently numbers around 50,000 U.S. troops in the region.
“It costs us very little to keep them there. I don’t consider them in danger,” Trump said. He added that the forces would stay “until such time as we have a completion, and when we have a completion, you will see things as you’ve never seen. The oil will go down, the stock market already, as you know, it’s hit an all-time high. Even in the midst of it, it hit all-time highs.”
The conflict began on February 28, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed since then. Trump acknowledged the casualties, calling the number “too many, but … less than anybody has ever even envisioned.” He noted that American military strikes have heavily damaged Iran’s leadership structure and completely eliminated the Iranian Navy.
Despite the ongoing military action and an active U.S. blockade over the Strait of Hormuz—a vital trade choke point that previously handled 20 percent of the world’s oil—Trump rejected the term “war” to describe the situation, choosing instead to label it a “military exercise.”
According to Trump, the Strait of Hormuz blockade is costing Iran between $400 million and $500 million a day in lost revenue. “It’s not sustainable for them,” Trump said. “They have an economy that’s shot, in addition to everything else.”
Currently, a multi-month ceasefire is holding while the two nations negotiate a permanent end to the conflict. Trump reported that the talks are progressing well, noting that Washington is now communicating with a new set of Iranian leaders.
“We’re having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country now,” Trump said. “It’s the third group that we’ve been dealing with, and they are different, and you could say it’s regime change, actually, because these are very different people. I find them to be more rational, very smart.”
These comments follow recent statements from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who informed senators that Iranian officials are now willing to discuss their nuclear program. Trump stated that negotiators have already “conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons” and indicated a willingness to work together to dismantle Iran’s nuclear stockpiles and enriched uranium.
“If we make a deal, now we’re friendly, we‘ll all go together,” Trump said regarding the nuclear cleanup. “It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on site or whether we take it off-site.”
However, the president emphasized that the U.S. is prepared to pivot back to offensive operations if diplomatic efforts break down, warning that the military would destroy the nuclear sites by force.
“If we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily, very harshly, and we‘ll wait ‘til we do that before we go, in which case we’ll have safety either way,” Trump said.
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