Trump: Iran operation is ‘ahead of schedule’

President Trump said on Monday that the U.S. operation in Iran is “ahead of schedule,” noting the “big wave” has yet to take place in the operation.

“I don’t want to see it go on too long,” Trump said in a phone interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“I always thought it would be four weeks and we’re a little ahead of schedule,” he continued.

When asked by Tapper whether the U.S. was doing more than the military strikes to help the Iranian people gain control of the country’s government, Trump said “yes.”

“Right now we want everyone staying inside. It’s not safe out there,” Trump said, adding that it is about to get less safe.

“We haven’t even started hitting them hard,” he continued. “The big wave hasn’t even happened. This big one is coming soon.”

In the same interview, Trump told Tapper the U.S. was “knocking the crap” out of Iran.

“I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and we’re using it,” the president said.

Trump’s latest comments on the operation, which has been dubbed Operation Epic Fury, come roughly two days after Washington in coordination with Israel launched its first strikes on the country, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other senior Iranian officials.

The conflict has now extended with Iran launching retaliatory strikes toward Israel, and Gulf states that host U.S. bases, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others.

The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) confirmed on Monday that a fourth U.S. service member was killed after suffering injuries from Iran’s initial attacks. Trump and other U.S. officials have predicted there would likely be more American casualties as a result of the operation.

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