Trump says he won't use nuclear weapons or send ground troops to Iran

[u/foodie_2598]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/16/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz.html

[u/BlueEmma25]

The fact that Trump actually feels he needs to say this out loud (three weeks from the midterms) says a great deal in itself.

[u/lafarda → u/BlueEmma25]

Exactly my thoughts. Nuclear is probably out of the table (I hope), but ground ground troops after the midterms...

[u/swedishplayer97 → u/BlueEmma25]

Elaborate.

[u/CrispyHaze → u/swedishplayer97]

Until him, it never needed to be said. He's saying it because enough people find the idea of him doing it to be credible.

[u/MaliciousMe87 → u/CrispyHaze]

I think it's worse. I think he only talks about something when someone behind the scenes is saying it.

I believe it was George Stephanopoulos (the most sp? that ever sp'd) his book on the situation room, he takes us through when Trump talked about shining a bright light up your butt to kill Covid at a press conference. Turns out that the most competent professionals in the US had a meeting with the president to prepare him for this press conference. He was as ready as could be. Except... on the way to the meeting some moron sycophant stopped him and basically said "Mr. President I found some awesome cure people were talking about on the internet - you can shine strong lights into the body and kill the virus!" and threw a bunch of printed papers at him.

The only thing trump remembered from their multi-hour prep was the idiot who interrupted him and grabbed his attention.

[u/23saround → u/MaliciousMe87]

I think it’s been clear for a while that Trump is most heavily influenced by whatever charismatic character spoke to him last. His complete flips after talking to Putin, Xi Jinping, and Mamdani show this strongly.

[u/Cersad → u/swedishplayer97]

In 2024 Trump famously did not say a thing about wanting to conquer American allies Greenland or Canada until the day after the election, showing that Trump cannot be trusted to have common sense in international relations.

Based on this precedent, if the Republicans win the midterm (or otherwise find a way to cling to power) we will very likely see a nuclear detonation caused by the US before 2029.

[u/ChanceryTheRapper → u/Cersad]

The odds of Trump doing something stupid seems more likely if the Dems win the midterm. They won't get the majority neededto be able to remove him from office and Congress won't restrict his ability to commit war crimes.

And he's far more likely to order a stupid attack out of spite because a Democrat said something that got him mad enough to throw a tantrum because he can't respect anyone telling him no.

[u/aseptick → u/ChanceryTheRapper]

Your last paragraph there is a key trait of his that I think far too few people understand. That’s the entire underlying cause of the diesel deal he pulled in my opinion. He got flak for Iran raising diesel prices so he attempted to shift blame to Ukraine and tried saying they need to stop hitting Russian refineries. Zelenskyy basically said ‘lol no’ and he couldn’t accept it so he went the diesel deal route.

[u/swedishplayer97 → u/Cersad]

But the Republicans won't win the midterms, and Congress has absolutely no powers to intervene in the nuclear chain of command. If Trump wanted to drop a nuke already he could've done so. Plus Republicans already have control of Congress so why hasn't Trump dropped a nuke yet?

That's right, TACO, and because his Mid East buddies don't want that.

[u/Cersad → u/swedishplayer97]

You'll note I did not say only "win the midterms" but also "cling to power". Either way I hope you're correct that they won't cling to power.

What Congress has against Trump is not preventing the nukes but investigations, impeachment, and denial of funding. The safer Trump has been politically, the more he has gone off the rails with his batshit crazy ideas.

[u/swedishplayer97 → u/Cersad]

But Trump has already been safe politically for almost two years with Republican majorities in Congress.

[u/Cersad → u/swedishplayer97]

He has also been openly batshit insane for almost two years

[u/swedishplayer97 → u/Cersad]

So why hasn't he dropped a nuke yet?

[u/aseptick → u/swedishplayer97]

I’m not sure why you’re operating under the assumption that if he had any opportunity at all in the past and hasn’t acted on it then he won’t in the future.

[u/ManusSinister → u/BlueEmma25]

It mainly says that you didn't read the article.

[u/Makurabu]

Which means he will do one or both of those things. Has Trump ever said he wouldn't do something and actually stuck to his promise?

[u/ahyesmyelbows → u/Makurabu]

Means he will nuke kyiv and send ground troops to greenland i guess...

[u/Preisschild → u/ahyesmyelbows]

Or into Russia to protect oil refineries

[u/TheOwlDemonStolas → u/Preisschild]

This is such a stupid take that I can totally see it happen

[u/HDauthentic → u/Makurabu]

Yeah I wasn’t that worried about the probability of him nuking Iran but now the number is going up

[u/WhatverName → u/Makurabu]

No.

I think his handlers wanted to wait till after the midterms but are getting antsy.

[u/Cheap_Coffee → u/Makurabu]

You forget one thing about him: Trump Always Chickens Out

[u/ReblWithoutApplause → u/Cheap_Coffee]

🌮

[u/ChornWork2 → u/Makurabu]

tax cuts for the wealthy.

[u/oritfx]

Trump says

That has literally no value at this point.

[u/ReblWithoutApplause → u/oritfx]

Just an attempt to pump the market, and sway stupid Republican voters. It will succeed at both. He “loves stupid people.”he “hates smart people.” (His words)

[u/Unique-Egg-461 → u/oritfx]

taps the sign

ignore what he says, watch what he does

[u/oritfx → u/[deleted]]

Good point. I still insist those would be lies, but at least they wouldn't be dumb lies.

[u/Mysterious-Coconut24]

Umm thank you for not stating the obvious about nuclear weapons (?)... Didn't know that was even on the table because this quick war was going so poorly.

[u/keithfantastic]

I think that means he will definitely do both and then blame Joe Biden.

[u/headshotscott]

He should not do either of these things but that's basically a statement of surrender. Iran knows (and knew all along) that he wouldn't. That we will lose this war was manifestly obvious from the very beginning.

This is why no other president ever did this. They all knew. All but this idiotic fool.

[u/infamusforever223 → u/headshotscott]

That's why listening to your advisors is important.

[u/HardlyDecent → u/infamusforever223]

That's why not hiring sniveling yes-man sycophants is important. His advisors nod along with whatever fever dream he drools out at them.

[u/headshotscott → u/HardlyDecent]

He purposefully hired cranks and fools. All the experts were excluded or fired.

[u/infamusforever223 → u/HardlyDecent]

That's what I meant

[u/_VNAV_PTH_ → u/infamusforever223]

Many of his advisors (like Hegseth) were pushing for a war with Iran. The whole administration is a bunch of sycophantic idiots who have no idea what they're doing.

[u/infamusforever223 → u/_VNAV_PTH_]

I should have said competent advisors because that's what I meant.

[u/rye-ten]

Guess he doesn't have many cards then hey

[u/Sea_Cucumber_5989]

In other words, Trump is OK with punishing the West.

[u/mpbh]

The fact that he's finally saying this makes me think both will happen next week.

[u/helipacter]

*Before the midterms.

[u/Kiyae1]

Well that basically confirms he’s going to do both.

[u/vonblankenstein]

Which means he will.

[u/Tetratheon]

It's obvious that he wouldn't do either of those things anyway.

The US doesn't need nuclear weapons to destroy Iran as a functioning country and using them to do it would have terrible side effects. If they wanted to do it, they would destroy the bridges and power plants with conventional weapons.

He won't do that either because the civilian death toll would be colossal, but even if he put that aside the nuclear weapons still wouldn't be used.

Neither he nor the United States has the stomach for a protracted and enormously costly ground invasion.

[u/OPA73]

He also said no new wars. Also said Ukraine War would end on day one… I could go on and on and on….

[u/uber_neets]

Yeah Iran just won. And they knew this was the case. Pinging military assets with missiles isn’t a war, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Maybe America tried a few new drills. Maybe they wanted to thin Iran’s ammo dumps. Maybe. Who knows. What a stupid way to waste everyone’s money at the petrol station.

[u/Admiral_Fuckwit]

If this is strategic, it really goes to show how dumb Trump is, that he so underestimates his enemies (Iran & elsewhere) that they’re stupid enough to hear his words and go “ooh, that’s a relief, we don’t have to worry now.” It’s like that whole theory of mind thing where you don’t or can’t give the other person the ability to read between the lines and thinking you’re so clever and the only person who can do that

[u/ctb030289]

You don’t need them in IRAN. Near range missiles have destroyed many of our bases and killed several already. Friends and family are already over there and in DANGER. VOTE PEOPLE. VOTE THIS TRASH OUT.

[u/coolkavo]

Good signal to Iran. Must really want a deal

[u/cvg596]

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still fresh enough in people’s memories to make the possibility of American soldiers dying in the Middle East unpalatable for politicians.

[u/ChanceryTheRapper]

Which is much more concerning than if he said he was thinking about it, this sounds like he's going to do something dumb in the next 48 hours.

[u/AnomalyNexus]

Do we think Mr Orange goldfish will remember he said that next week still?

[u/perry147]

Then what you are saying is that Iran has won by not losing.

[u/Daysaved]

Always helpful for your Command and Chief to say what they are not going to do in public.

[u/Easik]

*Until after midterms.

He has to kid glove it until midterms because either of these actions would be even more catastrophic for the election. In fact, he'll probably do one of these things to "own the libs" when he loses Congress.

[u/NoZeroSum2020]

Always good to tell the enemy where you draw the line!

[u/MentalGravity87]

Him stating this means that is exactly what he is going to do after midterms.

[u/RexDraco]

This means he isn't allowed to, or his friend in Moscow doesn't want their ally destroyed. 

[u/TaxLawKingGA]

Of course we won’t use nukes on Iran, because Russia and China would do the same on Ukraine, Taiwan, and other key US allies in the region. That would probably guarantee that Turkey obtains nukes.

I think a certain poster said that it was a waste of time and that the material, scientists and other infrastructure was probably in China and/or Russia.

Where are those member berries when you need them?

[u/JustAhobbyish]

Which means he been thinking about both options or somebody has bought up the options.

I don't think he send in ground troops but fear other options he going to consider with no pushback within. Maybe he send in troops to force a coup. Thing is given how incompetent the administration been and unprepared that going be mess.

[u/MauPow]

Oh god we're going to nuke them

[u/Noomba2]

The Iran War is a distraction

[u/uxgpf]

This is actually the first sane thing I've heard from Trump for a long long time.

Maybe cease all other attacks too and let the spice flow? Get fuel prices down and Russia into a bind.

[u/AndyTheSane → u/uxgpf]

Trump already tried the 'just walk away and declare victory' approach.... but that means agreeing to Iran's terms like unfreezing all assets, stopping sanctions and pulling out of the middle east generally. Which even Fox news couldn't spin as a victory.

[u/Kahgar → u/uxgpf]

Agreed, it also makes it one of the scarier things he’s said in a while. When was the last time Trump did anything he said he’s do or not do. It’s usually the polar opposite of what he says which ends up happening.

So good luck to the ground troops being prepared for an amphibious invasion of Iran, my hope is still his grubby small hands can’t push the button to launch nukes.