President Trump told Axios on Saturday that he has several “off ramps” from Operation Epic Fury, the extraordinary U.S. military campaign against Iran that he launched early Saturday morning.
What they’re saying: “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear and missile programs],” Trump said in a five-minute phone interview from Mar-a-Lago.
“In any case, it will take them several years to recover from this attack,” he predicted.
Why it matters: The comments offer the first real window into Trump’s thinking about how this ends — and suggest he’s still open to a diplomatic solution, even after U.S.-Iran nuclear talks collapsed in Geneva.
A short operation followed by new ultimatums would be a dramatically different outcome than the regime change that some U.S. and Israeli officials have described as the goal.
Remember this report when you see people freaking out on social media. Donald Trump’s foreign policy is peace through strength. The end goal is peace not endless war. That is why Trump took action. Trump understands that had they not acted soon it would be much more difficult to succeed later.
Trump might take an off-ramp, he might not. At the end of the day he has all the cards.
