Posted on 03/02/2026 7:46:08 AM PST by Miami Rebel
CNN’s Jake Tapper delivered a blockbuster report about the United States’ ongoing military operation in Iran after a private interview with President Donald Trump on Monday.
Anchor Kate Bolduan paused an interview with John Bolton to allow Tapper to call in before asking her colleague about his conversation with the president.
“I just got off the phone with President Trump. It was a nine-minute phone interview, and we talked just about the war in Iran. I’m going to share some of it with you right now. The president said, quote, ‘We’re knocking the crap out of them. I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. They’ve got the greatest military in the world, and we’re using it,'” began Tapper before pressing on:
I asked the president how long he thought this military operation or war might last. He said, quote, “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks and we’re a little ahead of schedule.” I asked a president if the U.S. was doing more than these military strikes to help the Iranian people regain control of Iran against the regime, to seize the country from the Iranian regime, and he said, yes, the president said, “Yes, we are indeed. But right now we want everyone staying inside. It’s not safe out there.” And then the president said, it’s about to get even less safe. He said, quote, “We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.” We asked him about a bunch of other stuff too that I’m writing up and we’ll share later on The Lead at 5 p.m.
“Jake, in your many conversations with him, did you get a sense of mood, tone? I think I saw it described, you know, he’s been doing some interviews, especially over the phone, kind of just how he sounds in this moment as this is playing out?” followed up Bolduan.
“He sounded very pleased with how the operation’s going. He sounded very resolute in terms of the Iranian threat to the region and the world. Very confident about how this was, even though they did try to negotiate with the Iranians, how this ultimately was the right decision and the right approach, given all of the unrest, all of the terrorism, all of the menace that the Iranian regime had had been offering ever since the revolution of 1979,” replied Tapper. “He didn’t seem to be in doubt at all, thought things were going really really well, and were going to continue. And obviously we’re only on day, what, three of this operation? It started Saturday. And the president is projecting at least possibly that this military operation will last about a month, although obviously that’s not a firm and set time period. So there’s a lot more to come.”
The news, delivered straight from the horse’s mouth, that “the big one is coming” comes as a shock considering the fact that the U.S. and Israel have already taken out Iran’s long-tenured supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as a number of other top officials.
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Adding to SOBO, VTS, NRT, KYN
They're going to write what they want anyway, and Tapper on this particular issue isn't that bad. What Tapper ended up saying certainly doesn't hurt the President, so to this point, the decision to be interviewed by Tapper looks correct.
I often wish the President would...say less. But communicating with the press during a war is important. Because if you don't give them something to write about. The other side certainly will.
US military policy since the 1960s has been under the spell of the “baby Hitler” question - “if you had a Time Machine and could go back to Braunau am Inn in 1889 would you kill baby Hitler?”
The premise, of course, is that civilizational wars happen because of a Bad Mr. Big and if you kill Qaddafi or Saddam or Assad or Putin that the causes of the war you are fighting or preventing will disappear into the mists of History.
This Ayatollah dude is just the latest victim in this delusional thinking.
Cool, I’m set, just watching...
Well, now that you mention it...
If you want to stretch things a bit “Donald” (meaning biggest boss ruler in Scot Gaelic) roughly equates to “Cyrus” (meaning big boss ruler in whatever that language was) and both were certainly the, or at least among the, biggest big shots in the world at their respective times.
I’m not at all wise or learned enough to find signs in scripture, but that is all one heck of a coincidence.
“he can’t help bragging.” Whatever
Tapper is as full of it as a Christmas goose. I sincerely doubt Trump gave him any idea how long it will last or what they wished to accomplish over the phone and for release to the public prior to the effort. And telling the world it will be on the Lead at 5 p.m. is releasing information that should not be. So, anything he says is not going to be believable or trustworthy. And Tapper has been known to stretch the truth before.
wy69
Daisy cutters will not find a role in this war, except perhaps to clear landing fields for troops if we need to make sure the beaches on the straights of Hormuz are free of anti-ship missiles.
Or maybe at the nuclear sites if we decide to go get the nuclear materials ourselves. And perhaps scuttle their nuclear reactor.
I don’t see us doing the first. Maybe the second.
Totally agree..
“Why is Trump giving an interview to this Dem operative hack Jake Tapper?”
Fully agree.
It’s pretty freaking weird.
And, no, I’m not a religious nutter.
Heavy bombers
This is exactly what Trump needs to do.
This will immediately get back to the Iranian government and military and let them know it is greatly to their benefit to fully give up, now.
I doubt Trump even plans to be doing any major bombing anywhere near that amount of time. It is a threat that sounds real.
Which city will be the first to have a statue of Khamenei--Minneapolis or Seattle?
In certain games, "trump" cards beat everything else.
SO worth noting... China and Russia... absolutely silent on this. Not even the required STERNLY WORDED LETTER. The Mad Mullah’s THOUGHT their strategic oil trading partners would back them up. Nope. Scent is in the wind. This AIN’T BIDEN, a comatose, distracted old man... This is a DEAL MAKER who is kicking ass. We will displace the murderous monsters, and hopefully the People will FINALLY get to rise up and bring back western sensibilities. And when AMERICA turns lose investment, China and Russia are going to have to crank back their global aspirations.
I'm wondering what the Mad Mullahs are going to do as one by one their Muslim fellow nations turn against them.
Because it will run on CNN International.
-PJ
I give Trump credit for talking to Tapper and evidently he talked to Morning Joe the other day as well.
He is POTUS for all Americans.
Biden wouldn’t give Faux News the time of day.
In the scheme of things it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.
Trump is still going to trash the Fake News Media.
And the Fake News Media is still going to trash Trump.
That said he is a bigger man for throwing a dog a bone once in a while.
Trump is a leader and in my view there hasn’t been one in the WH since Reagan.
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