Trump Calls For Iranian Regime Change as Tehran Revamps Missile Arsenal

President Donald Trump said Friday that regime change in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen,” signaling a markedly harder posture toward Tehran as U.S. military assets continue to flow into the region.

“For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking, and in the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk,” Trump said. “Legs blown off, arms blown off, faces blown off — this has been going on for a long time. So let’s see what happens. In the meantime … tremendous power has arrived and additional power — as you know, another carrier—is going out.”

The remarks come as defense analysts say Iran’s strategic position has fundamentally shifted following the recent 12-day conflict, altering longstanding assumptions about both the regime’s durability and its military priorities.

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According to senior policy officials at the Jewish Institute of National Security of America (JINSA), Tehran is emerging from the conflict weaker in some respects, but more dangerous in others.

“The clocks have been reversed,” said Blaise Misztal, vice president for policy at JINSA, referring to the balance between regime longevity and nuclear breakout timelines. “Their nuclear program is back to zero — and they aren’t reinvesting,” following last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer, that destroyed three vital nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran.

Instead, Misztal and other analysts said, Iran has redirected resources toward systems that proved most effective during the fighting, particularly ballistic missiles.

“Iran’s ballistic missile program has gone leaps and bounds in both quality and quantity,” said Ari Cicurel, associate director of foreign policy at JINSA. “They are getting fuel mixtures from China. They started the 12-day war with 2,500 medium-range ballistic missiles, they are already back to 2,000.”

That figure does not include what Cicurel described as thousands of short-range ballistic missiles currently in Iran’s arsenal.

More concerning to U.S. defense planners, according to JINSA officials, is Iran’s evolving operational doctrine.

Rather than relying on single-system attacks, Tehran has increasingly adopted mixed bombardment tactics designed to overwhelm air and missile defenses. Those strikes combine suicide drones, short-range missiles, and medium-range ballistic missile barrages to confuse radar, exhaust interceptors, and complicate targeting decisions.

That strategy appeared to gain traction toward the end of the conflict. The United States alone expended roughly 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors during the fighting, according to JINSA estimates.

“That represents about 25% of the American stockpile,” said Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow for American strategy at JINSA. “It could take 18 months to replenish that.”

Ruhe added that War Secretary Pete Hegseth has already pressed manufacturers to expand production, but warned that industrial ramp-ups take time.

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