The words “regime change” immediately caused the heads of some of the President’s most ardent 2024 supporters on social media to explode, if their unhinged posts were any indication of their mental state.
Steve Bannon, who is usually hesitant to criticize Donald Trump hit the President.
And this one, asserting that President Trump was a mere Israeli puppet.
While Charlie Kirk, another one of the President’s most reliable supporters, tried to nuance his criticism.
While there is a legitimate concern that deeper US involvement in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran might split the MAGA coalition, much of the MAGA “influencer” angst is based on putting words he never said in President Trump’s mouth.
As frequent CHQ contributor retired Congressman Steve Stockman observed yesterday:
It’s a strange day when conservatives whom I admire start sounding like the left. President Trump has never said he would send troops to Iran for an endless war. Yet, libertarians and others are using the same tactic as the left: accuse your opponent (Trump in this case) of something he never said, then attack him for it.
President Trump has never proposed sending ground troops to Iran, yet his detractors keep shouting this falsehood. In the past, Trump has used military power effectively without deploying ground forces. He knows how to leverage the military to achieve victories without boots on the ground.
President Trump has never proposed sending ground troops to Iran, yet his detractors keep shouting this falsehood. In the past, Trump has used military power effectively without deploying ground forces. He knows how to leverage the military to achieve victories without boots on the ground.
So, let’s be clear: President Trump has never proposed putting the American military in charge of “regime change” in Iran.
But what he has recognized since the early days of his 2016 campaign for the White House is that Iran’s theocratic government is an existential threat to the United States and Western civilization.
Back in 2016 then-candidate Donald Trump gave a speech in Youngstown, Ohio that outlined his views on defeating radical Islam, and it is worth reviewing some of what he said to give context to his social media post about regime change in Iran:
The fight will not be limited to ISIS. We will decimate Al Qaeda, and we will seek to starve funding for Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. We can use existing UN Security Council resolutions to apply new sanctions.
Military, cyber and financial warfare will all be essential in dismantling Islamic terrorism.
But we must use ideological warfare as well.
Just as we won the Cold War, in part, by exposing the evils of communism and the virtues of free markets, so too must we take on the ideology of Radical Islam.
While my opponent accepted millions of dollars in Foundation donations from countries where being gay is an offense punishable by prison or death, my Administration will speak out against the oppression of women, gays and people of different faith.
Military, cyber and financial warfare will all be essential in dismantling Islamic terrorism.
But we must use ideological warfare as well.
Just as we won the Cold War, in part, by exposing the evils of communism and the virtues of free markets, so too must we take on the ideology of Radical Islam.
While my opponent accepted millions of dollars in Foundation donations from countries where being gay is an offense punishable by prison or death, my Administration will speak out against the oppression of women, gays and people of different faith.
What opponents of any American involvement in regime change in Iran fail to grasp or refuse to admit is that Iran’s radical Shi’ite theocracy is the source of all of the evils Trump 1.0 vowed to fight in 2016.
What Trump was saying is that, unlike Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush he will deploy all of the elements of our national power to defeat the ideology of radical Islam.
This is a profound and remarkable change from all previous administrations and one that is long overdue.
As we have been telling CHQ readers for a long time, Islam as it practiced by millions of adherents across the globe is not a religion, but a totalitarian political movement akin to Fascism, Nazism, and Communism.
When Ronald Reagan refused to accept that Communism must be accommodated, he was opposed by almost the entire foreign policy establishment and many of Capitol Hill’s Republican establishment as well. Through his 2016 speech in Youngstown Donald Trump demonstrated that he understands the threat of ideological Islam in Reaganesque terms. Little wonder he is experiencing opposition.
In Youngstown in 2016 Donald Trump did an exceptional job of defining the challenge of radical Islam and who is responsible of its growth. Now Trump’s job is to punch through the media filter to get out the message that regime change in Iran is the only way to reduce the threat radical Islam poses to America and Western Civilization.
As we see it, the “influencers” and self-appointed “Trump whisperers” who complain the loudest about the President’s use of the term “regime change” didn’t really pay attention to what President Trump said in 2016. Trump supporters would do well to ignore the social media meltdowns and recall his words from 2016, and his powerful commitment to defeat the threat of Iran’s theocracy.
There were many more worthwhile points in Donald Trump’s 2016 speech on defeating radical Islam and you can read the entire speech through this link.
- Trump foreign policy
- Iran policy
- Israel
- Iran nuclear weapons
- Five new missile bases
- Steve Witkoff
- Tasnim News Agency
- Qassem Basyar missile
- Brigadier General Kioumars Heydari
- Dismantle nuclear program
- Obama Iran nuclear deal
- Full dismantlement
- Iranian enrichment
- JCPOA
- regime change
- MIGA
