Name: Trump hints at limited military strikes to try to ‘nudge along’ nuclear talks with Iran
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President Trump continues to drop clues about what potential US Military action on Iran could look like if the two sides don't reach an agreement on a nuclear deal.

This morning, NBC's Monica Alba asked the president about the possibility of military action while reporters were being escorted out of the president's event with US Governors.

President, are you considering a limited military strike to pressure Iran into.

Are you considering a limited strike, sir?

Consider it, of course, comes amid the rapid US Military buildup in the Middle east and after President Trump suggested yesterday that the timeline for action against Iran could be in the next 10 to 15 days.

Joining me now on set is NBC News national security reporter Gordon Leubold.

Gordon, thank you so much for joining us.

President Trump said today he's considering limited military action.

So talk to me about what that could look like.

And given that there is this big military buildup, how can you have limited military action?

There is this massive buildup of military hardware in the region, a region that's had a lot of military buildups over the years in the past.

This is bigger than what it was in June when they did what they called Midnight Hammer, bigger what they did in the Caribbean when they went into Venezuela.

What's most striking about these are that there's the capability of 22 Raptor jet fighters, F30 fives.

So what's interesting is this gives a range of options as I think everybody has been reporting that the president could go small, medium, large, kind of little bit Goldilocks, not to make light of it.

But so what I think he's hinting at there is the possibility of, you know, limited strikes against certain sites to kind of nudge along the nuclear deal that he actually would like to what kind of targets could the United States actually strike?

So as NBC reported some months ago, the Israelis really would like to go after some of the ballistic missile sites in Iran.

The US could also go back and look at some of the sites they hit in June that were so called decimated and go off and kind of check those could go after some security sites and labs, some other things.

But there's a whole array range of opportunities for, for them to strike just to kind of send a message.

And the president has talked about 10 to 15 days being a timeline.

He loves to talk about a two week time frame.

How realistic do you think it is that there will be a decision made in the next 10 to 15 days.

This is, it's, I would say it's very hard to discern from this.

Let's remember that in June he said we're going to think about it for a couple more weeks.

And then within a few days, he did the strikes of Midnight Hammer.

So, you know, that's why we're all kind of on tenterhooks, to kind of see what he may or may not do.

But I think that he's, he is trying to get a deal.

I think he'd prefer not to go do almost even any strikes.

And if some of these kind of verbal, you know, this rhetoric that he puts out there can bring it to a close without strikes, that's what he'll do.

But I think that we're in the zone of him doing whatever he may or may not do.

What are some of the US Allies in the region thinking of all of this?

So initially, you know, as you may recall, about a month or so ago, the president was going to maybe conduct some strikes.

Then Israelis, others in the region were not prepared for what could come in retaliation from Iran.

And so since then, some of those air defenses and others and more capability have been kind of put into place.

Remember real quick that the, the Ford is in the eastern Mediterranean, the Lincoln's in the North Arabian.

One is they're kind of will share the responsibilities if there is anything.

But there is a need for defensive capability as well as offensive capability.

So a lot of that stuff is now kind of coming in.

And you know, I think that some of the Gulf allies who are very concerned may be kind of resigned to him doing whatever he may do.

There's been generally concern about what happens the day after, but

that's a whole, a whole new conversation, a lot to look out for.

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