Don’t want regime change in Iran: After announcing ceasefire, Donald Trump says ‘got to get Israel to calm down’

A day after announcing the bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Iran, US President Donald Trump seems to have had a change of heart. Trump said on Tuesday that he does not want a regime change in Iran, days after floating the idea in a Truth Social post. 

Ahead of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Trump was questioned on whether he believes that the Iranian leadership might need to be replaced. “No. If there was, there was, but no, I don’t want it,” he said. 

The US President further said that he would want everything to be calm as soon as possible. “Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos,” Trump added. 

Previously, Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social appeared to support the idea of overthrowing the Iranian regime after US-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. 

“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???” Trump wrote in the post. 

Furthermore, he lashed out in frustration at Tel Aviv and Tehran for not adhering to the ceasefire brokered by him to the last detail, while giving Israel a word of advice.

“I’ve got to get Israel to calm down now,” he said. “Iran and Israel had been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”

Meanwhile, senior Trump administration officials said that the US military action was aimed at disrupting Iran’s nuclear programme and not regime change.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the mission “was not and has not been about regime change,” akin to Vice President JD Vance. Later, the White House tried to contain the fallout of Trump’s remarks and said that regime change is for the Iranian people to decide and not a goal of the US military. 

Meanwhile, Trump claimed a ceasefire was “in effect” despite continued tensions. Explosions hit Tehran after Israeli strikes. Tel Aviv said it was retaliation for Iranian missiles, whereas Tehran denied firing them.

Israeli Defence Minister Katz vowed to “respond forcefully” to Iran’s “violation of the ceasefire.”