Special Investigations

Press Freedom Defense Fund

The Regime Change President Who Won’t (or Can’t) Actually Change Any Regimes

The Iran war shows that Trump is loving his military interventions — but they are never what he claims them to be.

Whoops, he did it again.

We need to adjust our language for President Donald Trump’s so-called regime-change efforts. Let’s call them “regime adjustments.”

Trump was fresh off his successful regime-adjustment operation in Venezuela when he decided to double down on his newly interventionist streak. Along with Israel, Trump attacked Iran with one of the largest military operations in at least a decade. The war — and that’s what it is — came only days after a gathering in Washington of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which includes Israel, marking, ironically, the board’s first war.

It’s hard to imagine what success, even by Trump’s loose standards, will actually look like in Iran.

It’s hard to imagine what success, even by Trump’s loose standards, will actually look like in Iran.

Unlike Venezuela, though, this time it’s hard to imagine what success, even by Trump’s loose standards, will actually look like — if there can be any measure of success at all.

In a somewhat rambling video message posted on Truth Social announcing the new Iran war, Trump offered no evidence as to why a preemptive or preventative attack was necessary at this time. Iran, after all, was in the middle of negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program, with negotiations set to continue the following week and, according to insiders, making solid progress. Unlike the U.S., Iran had made no moves that could be interpreted as aggressive or preparatory for initiating military action against either Israel or the U.S.

No Reasoning, No Goals

Instead of articulating any reasoning or goals for his strikes, Trump declared a decapitation strategy and exhorted the people of Iran to rise up and “take control” of the government: DIY regime change.

Israel Is Cynically Capitalizing on the Iranian Protests for Its Own Ends

He demanded that the security services and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “lay down” their arms and join the people — presumably the same people they had been brutally cracking down on only a month ago. There were no instructions on how the people were supposed to “take control” or who might be the leader to guide them. Nor did Trump give instructions to the security forces on how exactly they were supposed to lay down their arms and join the people. Hand over their arms to whom? Or did he have in mind a depot that would be set up somewhere IRGC personnel could drop off their AK-47s and assorted other weaponry?

Reza Pahlavi, the former shah’s son, pretender to the throne, and the most visible and possibly popular among opposition leaders, also exhorted his fellow Iranians to rise up at this opportunity to change the regime — in his own favor, of course.

It has been telling, however, that........

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