Ever since Trump called for the strike against Iran, the GOP has defended him by saying this was a precise mission designed to end the country’s nuclear program.
Republicans defended the attack by saying that we were not seeking a regime change, and that our role in this “war” was not over.
Trump poked the bear later, suggesting that he might want a regime change, but after much backlash, Trump walked that claim back.
Vance immediately hit the media circuit to defend Trump’s strike,
On the Sunday morning circuit, Vance had stated, “We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”
He later added, “We don’t want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program.”
This is typical of what most administration officials and Republicans were telling the media to try to calm the waters regarding impeachment talk against Trump for carrying out the strike.
On the same day, Trump created a major problem for the GOP by poking the bear on the regime change.
Trump posted 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!!"
I don’t care how you slice this one, it was not a smart move by Trump, even if he was “joking” as was later claimed.
A regime change in a country you just bombed does not make for a good punchline, especially when you have members of Congress lining up to impeach you for it.
Trump clearly got the memo about how this was all working out, so by Monday, Trump had already walked back his little joke.
Trump stated, “No. 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 continued, “Regime change takes chaos and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Trump is a master at creating chaos, and I truly believe that is why he made his initial comment. The comment served a purpose to move the news cycle, only this one backfired a bit on Trump. However, as he often does, I would expect Trump to try to flip the script and paint himself as the victim, saying that he had clarified his initial statement, but the media is still harping on what he previously said, which was clearly a joke.