BREAKING: Trump says Operation Epic Fury was expected to take 4-5 weeks, US is 'ahead' of schedule

President Donald Trump spoke on Monday during an awards ceremony to give the Medal of Honor to three soldiers, including two posthumously. The ceremony follows a weekend that saw America join Israel in striking Iran in an effort to not only wipe out their potential nuclear capacity for good, but also to usher in a new reality of leadership for Iran. 

Ahead of the ceremony, Trump spoke about the conflict in Iran, laying out four main objectives in US military intervention in the nation. Trump said that Iran posed terrible threats to the US because they were creating a conventional weapons arsenal to use as a shield for their nuclear program. Trump said there were also concerns about the nation's ballistic missile capability with regard to US installations in the region. Four US service members were killed when Iran struck a fortified operations center in Kuwait.

Trump said that the US had tried to negotiate with Iran but that they repeatedly backed out. Now, after a weekend of war actions by Israel and the US, their entire leadership has been wiped out. The US, Trump said, has been backed by other nations who also saw Iran as a threat to their security.

Trump slammed the previous leadership of President Obama, saying that he'd made a deal with Iran that essentially paid them to not pursue nuclear capability, only for that nation to continue to pursue nuclear capability.

"This was our last best chance to strike what we're doing right now and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime, and they are indeed sick and sinister," Trump said.

The president laid out the objectives, saying:

"First, we're destroying Iran's missile capabilities, and you see that happening on an hourly basis, on their capacity to produce brand new ones and pretty good ones they make.

"Second, we're annihilating their navy. We've knocked out already 10 ships. They're at the bottom of the sea.

"Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Never going to have a nuclear weapon. I said that from the beginning, they're never going to have a nuclear weapon. They were on the road to getting one legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country.

Fourth: "And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.

"And we thought we had a deal, but then they backed out, and they came back, and we thought we had a deal, and they backed out. I said, you can't deal with these people. Got to do it the right way."

Trump turned his attention to the four service members who have been killed so far in Operation Epic Fury, saying, "today, we grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action, and send our love and support to their families. In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people, and a threat, indeed it is."

Trump emphasized American might and said that the US would deal with the threat as long as it takes, despite the initial time period given of "four to five weeks." Earlier on Monday, he said that he would not hesitate to put US troops on the ground in Iran should it become necessary.

"We have the strongest and most powerful, by far, military in the world," Trump said, "and we will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always and we have from the beginning. We projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. We'll do it."