Those around Donald Trump are worried that the president will send U.S. troops to seize Iran’s nuclear material, even if it results in the deaths of scores of Americans.
Multiple officials across the Trump administration believe that the 79-year-old’s plan to escalate the Middle East conflict is a “resoundingly terrible idea” but fear the president will push ahead regardless, Zeteo reported.
While Trump has seemingly backed away from the idea of sending U.S. troops to seize Iran’s oil export hub, Kharg Island, the president is reportedly still keen on deploying troops and special forces into the country to retrieve enriched uranium as part of a plan to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“Taking Kharg Island would be a bloodbath. This would be a mega-bloodbath,” one unnamed official told Zeteo. “There’s also reason to think that some senior Iranians want us to put boots on the ground because it makes it easier to kill Americans.”
Trump’s deeply unpopular war in Iran has already resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. troops, with about 400 more wounded.
A shaky ceasefire began April 8 between the U.S. and Iran, which Trump now appears prepared to violate entirely by invading the Middle Eastern country.
The president is reportedly so enthusiastic about the prospect of sending U.S. troops into Iran that, when he talks about it, it sounds like he is discussing a “scene in a movie,” sources told Zeteo.
Officials have subtly been trying to talk Trump out of sending troops into Iran by frequently mentioning how many soldiers would likely die as a result—warnings that could fall on deaf ears.
“We might actually be stupid enough to try it,” one Trump administration official told Zeteo.
Trump believes that the success of the rapid military operation to abduct former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro from the South American country in January means his Iran plan could also work.
Another U.S. official also voiced fears to Zeteo that Trump does not understand the logistics involved in trying to remove extremely hazardous enriched uranium en masse.
“There’s a lot of it, and it’s f---ing heavy,” they said, adding that the president’s plan is “not the SEAL Team 6 movie that Donald Trump has in his head.”
Andrew Weber, an Obama-era nuclear weapons adviser, has warned that extracting uranium from Iran could take several weeks and potentially result in the deaths of thousands of U.S. personnel.
“It’s not a quick and easy thing to do,” Weber told The Telegraph last month. “It takes a skilled team a lot of time on target to do this safely.”
“If we put American boots on the ground, it would be extremely unpopular,” he added. “If we suffered significantly more casualties, it would be political death for the Trump administration.”
In a statement, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Zeteo: “President Trump is right—Iran cannot be allowed to possess enriched uranium that could quickly be upgraded to produce a nuclear weapon.
“Zeteo’s anonymous sources ‘close to the administration’ have no idea what they are talking about. The president’s entire team is behind him as he protects our homeland from the short- and long-term threat posed by a nuclear Iran.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.
