Two regimes down, deal in sight: Trump claims Iran’s ‘evil’ leadership wiped out, calls Hormuz move a ‘sign of respect’

US President Donald Trump on Sunday (local time) claimed that Iran has already undergone a “regime change”, pointing to the deaths of senior leaders and a reshaped power structure amid the ongoing conflict.

In remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said the current leadership in Tehran is not the same as before, describing it as a “different group of people” following heavy losses among top Iranian figures.

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The comments come as US and Israeli military operations continue to target Iranian leadership and strategic assets, significantly altering the country’s political hierarchy.

‘We’ve had regime change already,’ says Trump

Trump argued that successive layers of Iran’s leadership have been wiped out or replaced, framing this as an effective regime shift rather than a formal political transition.

“I think we’ll make a deal with them. Pretty sure. But it’s possible we won’t. But we’ve had regime change if you look already because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. They’re all dead. The next regime is mostly dead,” he said.

He added that Washington is now dealing with a third set of leaders. “It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change. And frankly, they’ve been very reasonable. So I think we’ve had regime change,” he added.

“You can’t do much better than that. The regime that was really bad, really evil was the first one that was done. The second was appointed and they’re gone. They’re all dead, other than one who may have a little life. And then they’re really in the third group and the third group of people that seem to be much more reasonable. It truly is regime change and regime change isn’t imperative but I think we have it automatically,” said the US President.

His remarks follow the killing of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in strikes that began on February 28. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was later appointed as the new Supreme Leader by Iran’s Assembly of Experts.

Several senior Iranian commanders and intelligence officials have also been killed, highlighting the scale of leadership losses in Tehran.

Deal ‘could be soon’ as Hormuz tanker move seen as signal

Even as hostilities continue, Trump struck an optimistic note on diplomacy, saying negotiations with Iran are progressing.

“I do see a deal in Iran, yeah. Could be soon,” he said, adding that talks are happening both directly and through intermediaries.

Trump pointed to Iran allowing oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a positive gesture. According to him, Tehran initially agreed to send 10 vessels and later increased that number to 20.

He described the move as a “sign of respect”, saying the shipments would begin soon and continue over the next few days.

“We have emissaries, but we are also dealing directly, and as you know, they’ve agreed to send 8 boats two days ago, and then they added another two, so it was 10 boats. And now today, they gave us, as a tribute, I don’t know, I can’t define it exactly, but they gave us, I think, out of a sign of respect, 20 boats of oil, big, big boats of oil going through the Hormuz Strait. And that’s taking place starting tomorrow morning over the next couple of days, a lot of boats. And I would only say that we’re doing extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up, whether it’s the B-2 bombers or just terminating, as an example, the Iran nuclear deal done by Barack Hussein Obama, probably the worst deal we’ve ever done as a country, one of the dumbest deals we’ve ever done. But I terminated it, fortunately, otherwise right now they’d have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

At the same time, Trump said US forces had carried out fresh strikes. “We’ve destroyed many, many targets today. It was a big day,” he said, referring to operations involving naval and air assets.

Trump revisits nuclear deal criticism

The US President also criticised the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed between Iran, world powers and the European Union.

The agreement, finalised in Vienna, had aimed to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump dismantled the framework in favour of pursuing a new arrangement, which remains under negotiation.