Trump Taunts Iran With ‘Regime Change’ Post, White House Says Talks Still Possible
The White House on Monday sent mixed signals on its ultimate goal in Iran, a day after a high-stakes US bombing run targeted three of the country’s key nuclear sites. While President Donald Trump openly flirted with the idea of regime change in Tehran on social media, his administration maintained that the door for diplomacy remains open.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump directly challenged the long-held diplomatic taboo of seeking to overthrow a foreign government. “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” he wrote, coining a new acronym for “Make Iran Great Again.”
The provocative post followed a massive US military operation on Sunday, where B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, an action Trump hailed as a “complete success” that caused “monumental damage.”
Officially, the administration attempted to walk back the president’s aggressive rhetoric. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Trump was “still interested” in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.
However, Leavitt also echoed the president’s sentiment in the form of a rhetorical question. “If the Iranian regime refuses to come to a peaceful diplomatic solution… why shouldn’t the Iranian people take away the power of this incredibly violent regime that has been suppressing them for decades?” she stated, as quoted by news agency AFP.
This apparent contradiction has created confusion about Washington’s end-game. Throughout the weekend, top officials like Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that the military strikes were solely aimed at dismantling Iran’s capacity to build a nuclear weapon and were not about regime change.
The US, Israel, and other Western nations have long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program, a charge Tehran has consistently denied. The recent US strikes, which joined an ongoing Israeli military campaign against Iran, have dramatically escalated the conflict and drawn calls for restraint from across the globe. While Washington claims the bombing mission was successful, there has been no independent confirmation of the extent of the damage to Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear program.
