Trump’s effort to frame the bombing as a decisive end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while heavily disputed by arms control experts, was picked up by supporters who claimed the bombing raid had effectively ended any potential conflict.
“Nobody is celebrating war,” right-wing commentator Dave Rubin wrote on X on Sunday morning. “People are celebrating the end of war.” Pro-Trump commentator Ben Shapiro hailed Trump’s actions as historic on his YouTube channel: “President Trump was never going to start world war three … he played this absolutely perfectly … President Trump was not dragged into a war, he managed this with absolutely stunning professionalism.”
However, just hours later, Trump raised the possibility of an extended military engagement in Iran when he suggested replacing the current leadership in a post 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!!!,” Trump wrote. Trump’s suggestion came after his own vice president, secretary of defense, and secretary of state had all declared that the bombing raid had nothing to do with regime change.
A MAGA cohort had warned for weeks that any attempt to replace the Iranian government would lead to a protracted war that would see US troops on the ground in the Middle East getting involved.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist who had repeatedly voiced his opposition to war with Iran, appeared to make a U-turn on Sunday evening in response to Trump’s “regime change” post.
“A bottom-up revolution rises from the will of the people,” Kirk wrote on X. A top-down regime change is engineered by elites and the intel community. One is organic, the other is orchestrated, forced … President Trump is talking about an organic uprising.”
Kirk was mocked by other right-wing influencers for his U-turn. “Oh now it’s TOP DOWN US led regime change that your [sic] against,” influential podcasters Keith and Kevin Hodge, wrote on X in response to Kirk. “Not just regular old regime change. We get a new and improved regime change sponsored by the intel community and defense contractors!”
While some of the loudest opponents to engaging in military activity in Iran—such as Tucker Carlson—have yet to comment on Trump’s suggestion of regime change, many have criticized the weekend’s incidents.
“American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits,” US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a lengthy diatribe on X after the bombings. “I’m sick of it.”
Meanwhile, Alex Jones, the school-shooting conspiracist and Pizzagate conspiracy promoter who filed for bankruptcy in 2022, said Trump’s regime change comments would drag US troops into the conflict.
“Now Trump joins in, essentially calling for regime change, that’s called sleepwalking us into total war, not what we voted for,” Jones said on his Infowars show on Sunday night.
On Monday morning, Trump himself indicated that the fallout from the US bombing raid may continue for some time, writing a post apparently in response to speculation that Iran will close one of the world’s busiest oil shipping channels, the Strait of Hormuz.
“EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN. I’M WATCHING! YOU’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY. DON’T DO IT!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before adding: “To The Department of Energy: DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! And I mean NOW!!!”