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Trump made the comments shortly\u00a0after visiting with troops\u00a0at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, and after he confirmed earlier in the day that he\u2019s deploying a second aircraft carrier group to the Mideast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,\u201d Trump said in an exchange with reporters when asked about pressing for the ouster of the Islamic clerical rule in Iran. \u201cFor 47 years, they\u2019ve been talking and talking and talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president has suggested in recent weeks that his top priority is for Iran to further scale back its nuclear program, but on Friday he suggested that\u2019s only one aspect of concessions the U.S. needs Iran to make.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who traveled to Washington this week for talks with Trump, has been pressing for any deal to include steps to neutralize Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program and end its funding for proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do it, that would be the least of the mission,\u201d Trump said of targeting Tehran\u2019s nuclear program, which suffered significant setbacks in U.S. military strikes last year.<\/p>\n
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Before the June war, Iran had been\u00a0enriching uranium up to 60% purity,\u00a0a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments advocating for a potential end to\u00a0Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s\u00a0rule come just weeks after Secretary of State\u00a0Marco Rubio said a potential change in power in Iran would be \u201cfar more complex\u201d than the administration\u2019s recent effort to oust\u00a0Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u00a0from power.<\/p>\n
Rubio, during a Senate hearing last month, noted that with Iran \u201cyou\u2019re talking about a regime that\u2019s in place for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s going to require a lot of careful thinking, if that eventuality ever presents itself,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world\u2019s largest aircraft carrier, is being sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Mideast to join other warships and military assets the\u00a0U.S. has built up\u00a0in the region.<\/p>\n
Trump had suggested another round of talks with the Iranians was planned for this week, but those negotiations didn\u2019t materialize as one of Tehran\u2019s top security officials\u00a0visited Oman\u00a0and Qatar and exchanged messages with U.S. intermediaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn case we don\u2019t make a deal, we\u2019ll need it,\u201d Trump told reporters about the second carrier. He added, \u201cIt\u2019ll be leaving very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already, Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the\u00a0Israel-Hamas war\u00a0in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranians are beginning to hold 40-day mourning ceremonies for the thousands killed in Tehran\u2019s\u00a0bloody crackdown on nationwide protests\u00a0last month, adding to the internal pressure faced by the sanctions-battered Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
The Ford, whose new deployment was first reported by The New York Times, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have\u00a0been in the region\u00a0for over two weeks. U.S. forces already have\u00a0shot down an Iranian drone\u00a0that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Trump in exchanges with reporters on Friday still offered measured hope that a deal can be struck with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive us the deal that they should have given us the first time,\u201d Trump said about how U.S. military action can be avoided. \u201cIf they give us the right deal, we won\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would be a quick\u00a0turnaround for the Ford, which Trump sent from the Mediterranean Sea to the Caribbean last October as the administration built up a huge military presence in the lead-up to the surprise raid last month that\u00a0captured Maduro.<\/p>\n
It also appears to be at odds with the Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0national security\u00a0and\u00a0defense strategies, which put an emphasis on the Western Hemisphere over other parts of the world.<\/p>\n
In response to questions about the movement of the Ford, U.S. Southern Command said U.S. forces in Latin America will continue to \u201ccounter illicit activities and malign actors in the Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile force posture evolves, our operational capability does not,\u201d Col. Emanuel Ortiz, spokesperson for Southern Command, said in a statement. U.S. \u201cforces remain fully ready to project power, defend themselves, and protect U.S. interests in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ford strike group will bring more than 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East but few capabilities or weapons that don\u2019t already exist within the Lincoln group. Having two carriers will double the number of aircraft and munitions that are available to military planners and Trump.<\/p>\n
Given the Ford\u2019s current position in the Caribbean, it will likely be weeks before it is off the coast of Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program and earlier over\u00a0Tehran\u2019s bloody crackdown\u00a0on nationwide protests.<\/p>\n
Iran and the United States held\u00a0indirect talks in Oman\u00a0a week ago, and Trump later warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement with his administration would be \u201cvery traumatic.\u201d Similar talks last year ultimately broke down in June as Israel launched what became a\u00a012-day war on Iran\u00a0that included\u00a0the U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear sites.<\/p>\n
The USS Ford, meanwhile, first set sail in late June 2025, which means the crew will soon have been deployed for eight months. While it is unclear how long the ship will remain in the Middle East, the move sets the crew up for an unusually long deployment.<\/p>\n
The Navy\u2019s top officer, Adm. Daryl Caudle, told reporters last month that keeping the Ford longer at sea would be \u201chighly disruptive\u201d and that he was \u201ca big non-fan of extensions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carriers are typically deployed for six or seven months. \u201cWhen it goes past that, that disrupts lives, it disrupts things \u2026 funerals that were planned, marriages that were planned, babies that were planned,\u201d Caudle said.<\/p>\n
He said extending the Ford would complicate its maintenance and upkeep by throwing off the schedule of repairs, adding more wear and tear, and increasing the equipment that will need attention.<\/p>\n
For comparison, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower had a nine-month deployment to the Middle East in 2023 and 2024, when it spent much of its time engaged with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The ship entered maintenance in early 2025 as scheduled, but it blew past its planned completion date of July and remains in the shipyard to this day.<\/p>\n
Caudle told The Associated Press\u00a0in a recent interview that his vision is to deploy smaller, newer ships when possible instead of consistently turning to huge aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #regime #change #Iran #happen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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