Trump Demands Role in Choosing Iran's Next Leader as Regime Leadership Structure Crumbles
President Trump declared Thursday that he wants Iran's entire leadership structure gone and that he has preferences for who should be a 'good leader' for the country -- an extraordinary assertion of American authority over the future governance of a sovereign nation of 90 million people. In a phone call with NBC News, Trump downplayed the possibility of a ground invasion but made clear that the military campaign's objectives now extend far beyond destroying Iran's nuclear program to actively shaping the country's political succession. The statement arrives as the IRGC scrambles to appoint a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, with the Assembly of Experts meeting disrupted by Israeli airstrikes. Trump's vision of selecting Iran's next leader echoes the most ambitious -- and historically disastrous -- examples of American regime engineering, from the CIA's installation of the Shah in 1953 to the catastrophic aftermath of regime change in Iraq. Whether the president's ambition is strategic signaling or a genuine policy objective, it represents the most expansive statement of American war aims since Operation Epic Fury began.
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He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
— Daniel 2:21
The desire to shape another nation's leadership reflects an ancient human impulse -- but Scripture reminds us that the rise and fall of rulers is ultimately God's domain, not any president's or general's. The history of American attempts to install leaders in the Middle East has been marked by unintended consequences that suggest the wisdom of humility before the One who truly sets up and deposes kings.