He also said the administration expects the campaign to last four to five weeks, but "we have [the] capability to go far longer than that."
First, we're destroying Iran's missile capabilities, and you see that happening on an hourly basis, and their capacity to produce brand-new ones," he said. "Second, we're annihilating their Navy. We've knocked out already 10 ships. They're at the bottom of the sea. Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. … And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders."
This was our last best chance to strike, what we're doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime," the president told his audience. "And they are indeed sick and sinister."
The president said the Iranian leadership "already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America." The objectives for the mission, he said, "are clear," listing four of them.
Today, the United States military continues to carry out large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime," he said at the beginning of a Medal of Honor ceremony.
The president was at Mar-a-Lago in Florida during the initial phase of the war, monitoring developments from his estate, and returned to the White House on Sunday evening.
Four U.S. service members have been killed in Operation Epic Fury so far, according to the U.S. military. Hegseth said that the troops were killed by a munition that hit a tactical operations center in Kuwait.
"Today, we grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action, and send our love and support to their families," the president said Monday. "In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people, and a threat indeed it is."
In a video message Sunday night, Mr. Trump said he expects there to be more American casualties, but combat operations "will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.
