Trump pushes back on reports of Iran war risks as clock ticks

South China Morning Post · Feb 24, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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US President Donald Trump has pushed back on reports that the Pentagon was concerned that an extended military campaign against Iran could prove difficult, even as he insisted his preference was still to strike a diplomatic deal.“Everything that has been written about a potential War with Iran has been written incorrectly, and purposefully so,” Trump said in a social media post on Monday. “I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people.”The US president also rebutted earlier reporting, including by the Wall Street Journal, that suggested Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine had been underscoring to Trump the risks of such a strike. The Washington Post said Caine had expressed concern at the White House and Pentagon that munition shortages and a lack of allied support could increase danger to US personnel.Trump said the general believes that “going against Iran at a Military level” is something that would be “easily won”.A row of some US Air Force tankers on the tarmac of Lajes airbase in Terceira island, Azores, Portugal. Photo: AFP“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack,” Trump said in the post.

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