U.S. President Donald Trump overnight Sunday hinted at the possibility of regime change in Iran, despite other officials in his administration previously ruling out such a move.
“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 posted on his Truth Social platform.
Earlier, Trump stated that the U.S. military had inflicted “monumental damage” on Iranian nuclear facilities, citing satellite imagery.
“Obliteration is an accurate term!” he wrote online.
In a separate post, Trump added: “We had a spectacular military success yesterday, taking the ‘bomb’ right out of their hands (and they would use it if they could!).”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that American military’s strikes had “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, as he revealed details about “Operation Midnight Hammer.”
The U.S. military had completed its mission to “destroy or severely degrade Iran’s nuclear program,” said Hegseth, adding that the operation against Tehran “was not and has not been about regime change.”
President Trump “authorized a precision operation to neutralize the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program,” the secretary told journalists at the Pentagon.
“Operation Midnight Hammer” included 14 “bunker-buster” bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine revealed at the press conference.
Caine said initial assessments indicated that the three attack sites—Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—had sustained “extremely severe damage and destruction,” but he declined to comment on whether any of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities remained.
Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told NBC News on Sunday that the airstrikes successfully set back Iran’s nuclear weapons program, adding that Washington hoped to pursue a diplomatic solution.
“We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it has already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program,” he said. “We want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here.”
Trump was slated to meet with his national security team on Monday afternoon to discuss the ongoing conflict with Iran, according to the White House.
