Tapper Reveals Trump’s Warning: “The Big One Is Coming” as U.S. Operation in Iran Intensifies

CNN anchor Jake Tapper stunned viewers Monday morning after revealing details from a private phone interview with current President of the United States Donald J. Trump regarding the rapidly escalating U.S. military campaign in Iran.

During a live segment, anchor Kate Bolduan briefly interrupted her discussion with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to bring Tapper into the broadcast, signaling the significance of the update.

“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,’” Tapper reported.

The president made clear that the United States is operating from a position of strength, projecting confidence in America’s military capabilities and the strategic direction of the campaign.

When pressed about how long the operation might continue, Tapper shared the president’s measured but determined outlook: “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.”

Tapper continued, explaining that President Trump indicated broader objectives beyond direct strikes. “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.’”

The remarks suggest that while significant damage has already been inflicted on Iran’s military infrastructure — including the removal of longtime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior officials — the administration views the current phase as only the beginning.

Bolduan later asked Tapper about the president’s demeanor during the call.

“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,” Tapper responded.

Tapper added that President Trump expressed no hesitation about the course of action and projected that the campaign could extend roughly a month, though he did not frame that as a fixed timeline.

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Pentagon: Focused, Decisive, Not Another Iraq

Speaking Monday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth underscored that the mission is targeted and strategic, not open-ended.

“Destroy Iranian missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure and they will never have nuclear weapons,” Hegseth said, appearing alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

He firmly rejected comparisons to the prolonged wars of the early 2000s.

“This is not Iraq,” Hegseth said. “This is not endless. I was there for both — our generation knows better, and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb and he’s right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission: Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes.”

Hegseth emphasized that there are currently no U.S. “boots on the ground” inside Iran, though he declined to speculate about future tactical decisions.

Gen. Caine cautioned that a full battle damage assessment would take time. “It will ‘take some time for us to conduct a battle damage assessment, and the targeting that CENTCOM will run will take those things into effect.’”

A Strategic Shift in the Middle East

Unlike previous administrations that allowed Iran to expand its influence across the region, the Trump administration appears determined to eliminate Tehran’s missile and nuclear ambitions decisively. The president has repeatedly framed the operation as a matter of national security, regional stability, and preventing further terrorism exported by the regime.

If the president’s warning is accurate, the most consequential phase of the campaign may still lie ahead.