Trump says he's open to regime change in Iran; Vance, Rubio say that's not the goal

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Just hours after Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States did not want “regime change” in Iran, President Donald Trump said that might be a desired outcome.

“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 in a Truth Social post on June 22 as Mideast tensions continued to escalate the day after the U.S. military bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump's post signaling an openness to new leadership in Tehran followed his vice president and secretary of State appearing on the Sunday morning talk shows arguing the U.S. focus was not at launching a war with Iran.

"We don't want a regime change," Vance told NBC's Meet the Press. "We want to end the nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here."

During an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, Rubio said the U.S. had a very specific mission in mind to take out Iranian nuclear facilities and that the onus is now on Tehran showing an interest in diplomacy.

“There are a lot of regimes around the world that we don’t like, okay?,” Rubio said. “But in this particular case, what we are focused on is not the changing of the regime.”

Five days before ordering the U.S. airstrikes, Trump on June 16 threatened Iran's supreme leader on social media and followed up a short while later with another two-word post: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"

In his remarks from the White House announcing the U.S. bombing operation on June 21, Trump said he wanted to “stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror.”

“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier,” Trump said. “For 40 years, Iran has been saying, "Death to America, Death to Israel."