President Donald Trump left the door open to deploying US troops to Iran, asserting he would do so only for a “compelling reason” against a thoroughly weakened adversary.

During his return flight to Florida from Dover Air Force Base aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump initially hesitated to comment directly on the matter.

When questioned about the possibility of American military presence in Iran, Trump responded, “Could there be? Potentially, if there’s a compelling reason.”

He emphasized, “If we ever took that step, the opposition would be so weakened that they wouldn’t stand a chance at ground-level combat.”

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Furthermore, Trump did not eliminate the possibility of deploying such forces to secure Iranian nuclear materials.

“We haven’t discussed it yet. However, they have been completely obliterated and unable to access it. Maybe in the future, we’ll address it. That would certainly be advantageous.”

“We haven’t talked about it. But it was a total obliteration. They haven’t been able to get to it. And at some point maybe we will. That would be a great thing.”

He called it “something we could do later” if needed.

And as for the length of the mission, Trump was firm.

“Whatever it takes,” he said.

“We’ve wiped out their navy, 44 ships. We’ve wiped out their air force, every plane.  We’ve wiped out most of their missiles … We’ve also hit their manufacturing areas where they make the missiles very hard. Their drone capacity is way down.

“And we’ve hurt ‘em where it hurts, including about every form of leadership you can have we’ve wiped out,” he said.

“We’re winning the war by a lot,” the president said, adding, “We decimated their whole evil empire. It’ll continue I’m sure for a little while.”