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/
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