(TJV NEWS) President Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying U.S. ground forces inside Iran as the conflict between Washington, Israel, and Tehran intensifies, according to an exclusive report first broken by NBC News.

NBC News reported that Trump has discussed the possibility of sending American troops into Iran with aides as well as Republican allies outside the White House. The conversations, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions, have centered on deploying a limited number of troops for specific strategic missions, rather than launching a full-scale ground invasion of the country.

Sources told NBC News the idea has been raised repeatedly in private conversations as the U.S.–Israel military campaign against Iran expands. The proposal under consideration would involve a small contingent of American forces carrying out targeted operations that could not easily be achieved through airpower alone.

The report, citing two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official, and another person familiar with the discussions, said the president has not made a final decision and no deployment orders have been issued. However, the discussions signal a potential escalation beyond the air and naval operations that have defined the conflict so far.

According to NBC News, Trump has also described a broader vision for what Iran could look like after the war. In those private conversations, he reportedly floated the possibility that Iran’s uranium supplies could eventually be secured and that a future Iranian government might cooperate with the United States on oil production arrangements similar to Washington’s current energy relationship with Venezuela.

White House officials pushed back on the report after NBC News published its findings. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the characterization of the discussions and argued the sources cited in the report were not directly involved in the president’s national security decision-making.

“This story is based on assumptions from anonymous sources who are not part of the president’s national security team,” Leavitt said in a statement reported by NBC News, adding that Trump “always wisely keeps all options open.”

Trump himself has previously signaled that he is not ruling out the use of ground forces entirely. In comments earlier in the week, the president said that while many previous leaders had rejected the idea of boots on the ground in Iran, he would not completely eliminate the option if circumstances required it.

The discussions come as the United States and Israel continue a sweeping military campaign against Iranian targets that began with large-scale strikes on Feb. 28. American forces have hit thousands of targets across Iran, including military facilities, missile sites, and naval assets, according to U.S. officials cited in reporting following the NBC News scoop.

Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel and U.S. positions across the region, dramatically raising the stakes of the confrontation and fueling concerns that the conflict could widen further if ground troops were ultimately deployed.