Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

“Hitting Iran hard”: Trump soft-sells “troops on the ground” via Fox News

Trump pointed his fan toward Mark Levin's show as the anchor made a pitch for invasion

Published March 29, 2026 1:18PM (EDT)

Donald Trump seems to know that deploying ground troops to Iran to continue a historically unpopular war will hurt his standing. The president turned to television hosts to float the idea on Saturday, promoting Fox News host Mark Levin before the anchor promoted a small-scale invasion.

“Watch Mark Levin interview of Brilliant Marc Thiessen tonight,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Will discuss the importance of hitting Iran, HARD!!!”

Viewers who took the president’s advice were pitched on sending small teams of “specialized” soldiers to Iran, with the hopes of removing enriched uranium from the country.

“Why would we need troops on the ground? Well, there’s a lot of reasons—and we wouldn’t need 300,000 of them,” Levin said. “[Trump’s] not talking about sending regular Army infantry in by the hundreds of thousands. The men he’s talking about, the units he’s talking about, they are specialized.”

As the war in Iran stretches past the one-month mark, it’s unclear whether Trump’s hinting indicates a real desire for escalation or a negotiation tactic. Pentagon insiders who spoke to Salon said that the president “might actually think that he can threaten to send in troops without ever having to do it,” betting on the U.S. superior firepower to cause Iran to fold.

Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.

“We wouldn’t be the first to mistakenly think a smarter bomb will keep us from putting boots on the ground,” the source said.

Watch Levin’s pitch via YouTube below:

Trump’s Iran war has no clear endgame

Saudi Arabia tells Trump to seize “historic moment” and continue war on Iran: report

How Iran emasculated JD Vance

Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2026 Salon.com, LLC. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. SALON ® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Associated Press articles: Copyright © 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© Salon