Karoline Leavitt: “When The President Determines Iran No Longer Poses A Threat, That’s Unconditional Surrender”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told FOX News on Friday what the president means when he says he is demanding an “unconditional surrender” from Iran. “When the president determines that Iran no longer poses that threat, that’s when that unconditional surrender will take place,” she explained. She also told reporters Friday that the administration expects the operation to last “4-6 weeks.”
.@PressSec: “What I will tell you is what @POTUS has already laid out, which is that the achievable objectives of Operation Epic Fury we expect to last about 4-6 weeks, and we are well on our way to achieving those objectives.” pic.twitter.com/AHqlKamYBp
– Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 6, 2026
FOX NEWS HOST: I wanted to come back to Iran, if I could, because the president said – as he did in the Venezuela operation – that he wants to be involved in whatever leadership takes over in Iran. He put this out on X. Axios reported yesterday that he said, They’re wasting their time here. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointments, like with Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela. It’s unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran. But I would assume that in order for the president to have a voice in whoever takes over in Iran, there has to be absolutely total capitulation – as the president said, unconditional surrender on the part of Iran. I mean, they’re not a regime known to offer unconditional surrender. Does he think he can get that done? KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE: Well, what President Trump means when he says unconditional surrender is when he, as commander in chief of the United States military and the leader of the free world, determines that Iran can no longer pose a threat to the United States of America, to our troops, or to our personnel in the Middle East. That is the ultimate goal of Operation Epic Fury – to annihilate their military capability, to take out their ballistic missile threat, which we have largely done in just six days, and of course to ensure they can never obtain a nuclear weapon. It is also about significantly weakening their proxies in the region that have killed and maimed hundreds of Americans over the years. We’ve seen the Houthis and Hezbollah hardly put up a fight over the past six days, and we are already well on our way to achieving the objectives of this operation. When the president determines that Iran no longer poses that threat, that’s when that unconditional surrender will take place. As for the next leader of Iran, the president has said that it is in the best interest of the United States to have a leader who is no longer chanting Death to America, who is no longer conspiring behind our backs and lying to the American people and to our government about proliferating nuclear weapons – which Iran has been doing for decades. That is unacceptable to the president, and that is why he decided to launch this operation.
