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Just hours after Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted that there was no plan for the U.S. to push for regime change in Iran, President Donald Trump suggested he was open to the idea.
After the U.S. joined Israel’s air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear sites on Saturday with an audacious strike using bunker-busting bombs launched from B-2 bombers, Vance appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning.
The vice president said that the administration's view “has been very clear that we don't want a regime change.”
He added: “We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it's already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here.”
However, by late afternoon, a different message emerged from the White House.
The president posted on Truth Social: “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!!!”
It is the first time Trump has raised the possibility of regime change in Iran, or encouraged it, since Israel launched air strikes against the nation ten days ago.
It is also a change of tune for Trump, who has criticized neo-conservatives in the Republican Party for years for their support for regime changes, most notably in Iraq.
Vance is not alone in stressing that the goal is not to topple the government in Tehran. Other administration officials have said that the goal is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Also on Sunday morning, Secretary Hegseth insisted the Trump administration “does not seek war” and is not trying to force regime change.
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” Hegseth told reporters in a briefing, adding that the strikes did not target Iranian troops or people.
Vance reiterated that message during his NBC appearance, describing it as “an incredibly targeted attack” while admitting it is “an incredibly delicate moment.”
Of the possibility of Iran responding by attacking U.S. troops, the vice president said it would be “the stupidest thing in the world,” and would be “met with overwhelming force.”
“If the Iranians are smart, they are going to have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Maybe we are not so good at this war thing, let’s give peace a chance, let’s drop our nuclear weapons programme and start to make some smart decisions’,” he added.
In other posts, Trump said the damage to Iran’s nuclear sites is said to be “monumental” thanks to “hard and accurate” hits by the military, and thanked the B-2 crews for “a job well done” when they landed back in Missouri.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, speaking at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, said that the U.S. “decided to destroy diplomacy” with its strikes on the country’s nuclear program and that the Iranian military will decide the “timing, nature and scale of Iran’s proportionate response.”
