by Thaddeus G. McCotter
Trump’s “regime change” claim mistakes dead dictators for dead ideologies—the mullahs’ anti-American regime endures because its governing creed remains intact.
There are times you are compelled to ponder whether President Trump’s statements are sincere beliefs or disingenuous, politically advantageous remarks. His recent assessment and redefinition of “regime change” in Iran is one such time.
As The Daily Signal reported, due to the U.S. military’s stellar performance against our enemy, “Trump said he had achieved a sort of double regime change in Iran.” Indeed, he asserts it may well have been three:
“It really is regime change,” he said. “You know, we didn’t set out for regime change, but the fact that we’re dealing with a totally different group of people than we were at the beginning, and frankly, I find them to be much more reasonable. I actually find them to be smarter.”
“This is regime change,” Trump added. “One regime is gone, another regime is gone, we’re dealing with the third. Pieces of it, because some of them are gone, too.”
Regrettably, the president’s math is premised on a misguided assumption. Regime change requires the eradication of the ruling ideology, not merely the removal of some of the rulers who enforce it.
The two obvious examples of successful regime change that spring to mind are from World War II. Both prove the point in different ways.
When the U.S. and its allies occupied Nazi Germany following its unconditional surrender, de-Nazification was a comprehensive, whole-of-society effort to eradicate both the ruling ideology and the rulers themselves. This was necessary to eradicate over a decade of Nazi indoctrination and genocidal totalitarian rule over the German people, as well as the vile regime’s similar domination of occupied nations, which occurred with the support of elements within those local populations. Consequently, a root-and-branch elimination of the Nazi ideology followed. While Hitler and other top Nazis cheated the hangman, the Nuremberg war crimes trials resulted in the execution and/or imprisonment of remaining key regime leaders. Thus, in the instance of regime change in Nazi Germany, both the National Socialist ideology and its regime’s leadership were eradicated.
Imperial Japan’s regime change featured a key difference. Before, during, and after the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Secretary of War Henry Stimson argued that allowing Emperor Hirohito to remain as ceremonial head of state was essential to securing Japan’s surrender, and thereby avoiding millions of Japanese, American, and allied deaths resulting from an invasion of mainland Japan. Under the dominant Shinto religion that helped fuel the nation’s militarism, the emperor was worshipped as a god. For the U.S., the question was whether the Shinto ideology could be eradicated if Japan’s literally revered emperor could remain as a figurehead.
Today, the answer is a resounding yes. State Shinto was abolished. Following the Tokyo war crimes trial, top leaders of the regime, including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, were executed. Yet Emperor Hirohito remained ceremonial head of state (who did abet Japan’s surrender, and subsequently the nation’s transition into a democracy and an ally of the United States). Thus, in the instance of regime change in Imperial Japan, Shintoism as an ideology was abolished, but its top leader was spared, and remained the figurehead of the state.
The lesson found in both historical instances is clear: successful regime change requires eradicating the regime’s ideology, not merely padding the body count of its key adherents.
This returns us to the conundrum posed by the president’s claim that he has attained several regime changes in Iran.
Setting aside his assertion that the United States did not seek regime change (but somehow unwittingly and repeatedly attained it numerous times), one wonders whether the president has mistaken the killing of regime officials for actual regime change. After all, he would not be the first, nor sadly likely the last, to conflate individuals with interests, nor to vainly endeavor to employ transactional solutions to intractable ideological differences. He may genuinely believe that by killing individual regime leaders and offering their successors monetary and other incentives—including the prospect of living longer—he has changed the regime’s ideology.
That would be a grave mistake, based upon the evidence. After all, the tyrannical Tehran regime still seeks and chants “Death to America!” It remains the basis for the mullahs’ claim to “legitimacy.” This anti-American ideology—not its individual leaders—constitutes the foundation of the Iranian regime.
Moreover, the Iranian regime is a nationwide system of organized repression. Killing a handful of leaders at the top will not suffice to end it. For those at the lower tiers of the tyranny, these true-believers profit from the corruption their rule enables. These bottom-feeding butchers, heavily involved in the killing of tens of thousands of peaceful Iranian dissidents, rest easy at night knowing they are safe from the US administration sending in ground troops to end their reign of terror.
Hence, the mullahs and their IRGC remain the dominant force in the country—as evidenced first and foremost by the tens of thousands of dead dissidents. Now, as the Obama administration did before it, the current administration has separated the regime’s exportation of terror from negotiations over its nuclear ambitions and has likewise offered economic inducements in exchange for an agreement. Unlike the Obama administration, however, the current negotiations appear to concede that Iran can and will control access to the Strait of Hormuz. As such, whatever deal is struck, and whichever ayatollah signs off on it, the mullahs, its IRGC, and their ideology will reign supreme in Iran.
Why does that matter? Because the regime’s ideology requires it to lie and deceive the “Great Satan.” Thus, whether dealing with the Obama administration or the Trump administration, so long as the Iranian regime’s “Death to America” ideology remains, Iran will not faithfully uphold any agreement it signs with the United States or its partners. In short, this will not be a case of “trust but verify,” because neither side can trust the other in the first place.
This raises another possibility: the president understands that genuine regime change requires the eradication of the ideology but is presently unable to accomplish that objective. Hence his desire to suggest that by changing Iran’s rulers and negotiators he has produced a more reliable partner that will faithfully implement a future agreement.
In doing so, the president has adopted a postmodern approach. He arbitrarily redefines the term “regime change” to alter what constitutes an acceptable outcome for the negotiations—and indeed for the military operation itself—and thereby create a politically advantageous narrative for domestic consumption.
This will not work. The regime’s ideology—the very reason for its existence—remains unchanged and continues to be embraced by its leaders and their loyal, true-believing, barbarous minions throughout the tyrannically oppressed country.
Come to think of it, when it comes to “regime change” in Iran, whether the president is sincere or calculating in making this claim is irrelevant. Any genuine regime change must come from the Iranian people themselves, whose aspirations for freedom must bring about the collapse of this execrable regime. For when all is said and done, only the facts on the ground will matter. And in Iran today, the blood-soaked ground is covered less by the corpses of tyrannical mullahs than by those of peaceful protestors.
This is the Iranian regime that remains in place.
* * *
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003 to 2012. He served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee and as a member of the Financial Services, Joint Economic, Budget, Small Business, and International Relations Committees. Not a lobbyist, he is also a contributor to Chronicles, a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars, and a cohost of The John Batchelor Show, among sundry media appearances.
Photo: Protestors burn images of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally held in Solidarity with Iran's Uprising, organised by The national Council of Resistance of Iran, on Whitehall in central London on January 11, 2026, to protest against the Iranian regime's crackdown on internet access and "recognise their right to self-defence against the regime's forces". At least 192 people have been killed in two weeks of protests against the government and economic strain in Iran, a rights group said on Sunday, in a sharp rise from an earlier death toll of 51. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP)
Thaddeus G. McCotter
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/06/regime-change-requires-eradicating-an-ideology/
No comments:
Post a Comment