{"id":17833,"date":"2026-03-01T19:46:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17833"},"modified":"2026-03-01T19:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T03:56:23","slug":"trump-says-war-could-last-weeks-and-offers-contradictory-visions-of-new-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17833","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Trump Says War Could Last Weeks and Offers Contradictory Visions of New Regime&#8221;, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/planetearthfdn.org\/news\">Back to News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"article-summary\">In a brief interview, he said the country\u2019s hardened military should simply surrender their weapons to the Iranian public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zolan Kanno-Youngs called President Trump from West Palm Beach, Fla. David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager reported from Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>March 1, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen to this article&nbsp;\u00b7 7:43 min&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/help.nytimes.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/24318293692180\">Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/03\/01\/multimedia\/01dc-trump-fjhp\/01dc-trump-fjhp-articleLarge-v4.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" alt=\"President Trump grips a railing on the stairs to Air Force One.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Trump boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday. He spoke to The Times in a brief phone interview.Credit&#8230;Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>President Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. military intends to sustain its assault on Iran for \u201cfour to five weeks\u201d if necessary, insisting that it \u201cwon\u2019t be difficult\u201d for Israel and the United States to maintain the intensity of the battle even as he warned of the possibility of more American casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a brief telephone interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump offered several seemingly contradictory visions of how power might be transferred to a new government \u2014 or even whether the existing Iranian power structure would run that government or be overthrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the options he suggested was an outcome similar to what he engineered in Venezuela, in which only the top leader was removed during an American military strike and much of the rest of the government remained in place, but newly willing to work pragmatically with the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The assault on Iran is considered far more complex and risky than the operation to capture Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who was Venezuela\u2019s leader, in part because Iran\u2019s leadership oversees extensive military abilities and because of deep divides in Iranian society over the country\u2019s course. And unlike Venezuela, Iran has sustained an active nuclear program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The interview with Mr. Trump seemed to reflect the degree to which his administration remains uncertain about how the next few weeks will unfold, both on the battlefield and in the creation of a replacement government in Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he insisted the Pentagon retained plenty of forces, missiles and bombs to sustain the military assault \u201cif we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked how long the United States and Israel could keep up this level of attacks, he responded: \u201cWell, we intended four to five weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt won\u2019t be difficult,\u201d Mr. Trump added. \u201cWe have tremendous amounts of ammunition. You know, we have ammunition stored all over the world in different countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He made no mention of the Pentagon\u2019s concerns that the conflict could further deplete reserves that military strategists have said are critical to retain in scenarios like a conflict over Taiwan or Russian incursions into Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the roughly six-minute call, Mr. Trump said he had \u201cthree very good choices\u201d about who could lead Iran, although he declined to name them. Earlier on Sunday, Iran\u2019s top national security official, Ali Larijani, said that an interim committee would run the country until a successor to the supreme leader was chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Larijani oversaw the abruptly ended negotiations for a nuclear deal with the United States, and in January was targeted in sanctions by the Trump administration for his role in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Trump did not answer a question about whether he thought Mr. Larijani could lead the government of Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The president offered a variety of often inconsistent visions of how a new government could take shape after the targeted killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for more than three decades until he was killed by an airstrike on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When pressed on his plans for a transition of power, Mr. Trump said he hoped Iran\u2019s elite military forces \u2014 including hardened officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who have held substantial influence and profited from the existing regime \u2014 would simply turn over their weapons to the Iranian populace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey would really surrender to the people, if you think about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was those same security forces \u2014 in particular, the Basij, which organizes local militia \u2014 that opened fire on street protesters in January and killed thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then he offered a very different model of what the transition of power in Iran might look like, referring repeatedly to his experience in Venezuela after he ordered a Delta Force team to seize Mr. Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,\u201d Mr. Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His answer implied that what worked in Venezuela would work in Iran, a nation with about three times the population and a military and clerical leadership that has ruled with increasing repression since the 1979 revolution. Over the past several weeks, Mr. Trump has repeatedly brought up Venezuela as the model of a successful operation and hoped to replicate aspects of it in Iran, identifying leadership that would be more cooperative and friendly to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he has been told by his advisers that the vast differences in cultures and history made it virtually impossible to apply the strategy used in Venezuela \u2014 in which the existing government was kept in place, after it agreed to take instructions from Washington \u2014 and try to replicate it in Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonetheless, Mr. Trump appears enamored of using a Venezuela-like model in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEverybody\u2019s kept their job except for two people,\u201d Mr. Trump said of the outcome in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was vague on the question of who should be in the top ruling position in Iran after the ayatollah\u2019s death, or even who should decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, when asked whom he wanted to lead Iran, he said, \u201cI have three very good choices.\u201d He added: \u201cI won\u2019t be revealing them now. Let\u2019s get the job done first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then he described a scenario in which the Iranian people would overthrow the existing government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s going to be up to them about whether or not they do,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been talking about it for years so now they\u2019ll obviously have an opportunity.\u201d That would, of course, be the opposite of the Venezuela model that he had said minutes earlier he wanted to replicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Trump also said he did not think that the Arab states in the Persian Gulf were needed to join the United States in striking Iran, even though Tehran has targeted many of them \u2014 and Israel \u2014 with retaliatory missile and drone attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Trump spoke from Mar-a-Lago, about 36 hours into the conflict, and soon after he received news of American casualties. Saying he could only speak briefly because he said he was about to meet with \u201cthe generals,\u201d he acknowledged that his administration expected more casualties, based on projections offered by the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThree is three too many as far as I\u2019m concerned,&#8221; Mr. Trump said. \u201cIf you look at projections, they do projections, it, you know, it could be quite a bit higher than that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe expect casualties,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he professed confidence that Iran would, in the end, bend to America\u2019s and Israel\u2019s will. \u201cThe country has been very substantially weakened, to put it mildly,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Already, the United States and Israeli forces have killed a number of Iran\u2019s military leaders, leaving a power vacuum that the Iranian government was already seeking to fill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Trump said that he was open to lifting sanctions on Iran if the new leadership showed itself to be a pragmatic partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he also refused to say how \u2014 or if \u2014 his administration would defend the Iranian people he has said should overthrow the current government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t make a commitment one way or the other; it\u2019s too early,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cWe have work to do and we\u2019ve done it very well. I\u2019d say we\u2019re quite ahead of schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Trump added that the U.S.-Israeli military strikes had \u201cknocked out a big portion\u201d of the Iranian navy, including nine ships and the navy headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After about six minutes, Mr. Trump said he had to end the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later Sunday afternoon, he returned to Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/zolan-kanno-youngs\">Zolan Kanno-Youngs<\/a>&nbsp;is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/david-e-sanger\">David E. Sanger<\/a>&nbsp;covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/tyler-pager\">Tyler Pager<\/a>&nbsp;is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to News In a brief interview, he said the country\u2019s hardened military should simply surrender their weapons to the Iranian public. Zolan Kanno-Youngs called President Trump from West Palm Beach, Fla. David E. Sanger and Tyler Pager reported from Washington. March 1, 2026 Listen to this article&nbsp;\u00b7 7:43 min&nbsp; Learn more President Trump said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17839,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17833\/revisions\/17839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}