'Don’t want to see chaos': Trump says ‘no’ to regime change in Iran, despite calling for it days earlier

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he is not seeking regime change in Iran, days after appearing to suggest otherwise on social media.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump downplayed the idea of removing Iran’s current leadership. “If there was, there was, but no, I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible,” he said. “Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos,” he added.

“You know, the Iranians are very good traders, very good business people, and they’ve got a lot of oil. They should be fine. They should be able to rebuild and do a good job. They’re never going to have nuclear but other than that, they should do a great job,” the US President said.

But his Truth Social post said otherwise

The president’s comments appeared to contradict a post he made earlier 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!!!” he wrote.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have all said the US goal is not to remove Iran’s leadership, but to end its nuclear ambitions.

“We don’t want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear programme,” Vance told ABC, according to Politico.

What regime change in Iran would mean

Regime change would involve removing the Islamic Republic’s leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, potentially leading to the collapse of the political system established after the 1979 revolution.

The last time the US played a role in changing Iran’s leadership was in 1953, when the CIA backed a coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.