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US warns against Iran retaliation as Trump raises 'regime change'

On 23 June 2025, Reuters published US warns against Iran retaliation as Trump raises 'regime change'. Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali reported it. Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh added reporting. The dateline is Washington, 22 June, the day after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. An American family should care because the vice president said, in public, that the United States had no interest in boots on the ground. Boots on the ground means American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. The same article shows President Donald Trump, on social media, raising regime change, which means replacing Iran's government, while his own officials said that was not the mission.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED. The rating covers what Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on the record the day after the June 2025 strikes. Reuters quotes Vance from NBC's Meet the Press and Hegseth from the Pentagon podium. These are named officials, on named programs, giving the public its first "no boots on the ground" assurance of the Iran conflict.

What the article says​

Reuters says Trump, on Sunday, posted a question about regime change after the weekend strikes. The post, as Reuters prints it, says that if the current Iranian government cannot "MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN," then "why wouldn't there be a Regime change???" Officials in his administration were saying the opposite in public.

Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon, "This mission was not and has not been about regime change." He called it a precision operation against Iran's nuclear program. Vance told NBC, "our view has been very clear that we don't want a regime change." He then said the United States did not want to drag the war out, wanted to end the nuclear program, and then wanted talks. Reuters adds the ground-troop line at the end of that answer.

"had no interest in boots on the ground."

Vice President JD Vance, on NBC's Meet the Press, as Reuters reported on 23 June 2025. The words in quotation marks are Vance's. Reuters says he added them after describing a limited aim: end the nuclear program, then negotiate.

The article describes the strike itself, which it says was an air operation, not a landing. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that seven B-2 bombers flew 18 hours from the United States and dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs, in an operation called Midnight Hammer. He said the United States used 75 precision-guided munitions, including more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, and more than 125 aircraft, against three nuclear sites. He said early checks showed extremely severe damage. He would not say whether any nuclear capability remained. Reuters says a senior Iranian source claimed most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow, uranium processed to a very high concentration, had been moved before the attack. Vance told NBC the United States was not at war with Iran, but with its nuclear program.

Reuters says the United States already had nearly 40,000 troops in the Middle East, with air defenses, fighters, and warships. That figure is a regional garrison. It says the Pentagon had started moving some aircraft and ships away from bases that might be vulnerable. Hegseth said the strikes were not open-ended. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS that no further strikes were planned unless Iran retaliated.

The article says Trump had joined Israel's air attack, something he had long said he wanted to avoid. It notes scattered anti-war demonstrations that Sunday in New York and Washington. Tehran had fired missiles at Israel. Reuters says Iran had not yet carried out its larger threats to hit US bases or close the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that carries a large share of the world's oil.

What other reporting and posts add​

Vance's fuller words. Other outlets carried the complete sentence Reuters shortens. NOTUS quoted the vice president: "We have no interest in a protracted conflict. We have no interest in boots on the ground." Fortune reported that when Vance was asked if he could rule out American ground troops eventually being deployed, he answered that the US had no interest in a protracted conflict, which is a statement of intent rather than a pledge. NOTUS, 22 June 2025; Fortune, 22 June 2025. (captures: twitter/t52__v617.md, twitter/t52__v621.md)

Israel's prime minister on who started it. In a clip posted to YouTube on 25 June 2026 (the capture does not say when he first spoke these words, and "toward the end" fits the June 2025 war best), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I did not ask for permission. I simply informed him of our plans." "When I came to President Trump a few weeks ago, I told him, 'We are going into Iran because I am not waiting.'" "I was pleased that he also joined toward the end." YouTube, 25 June 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md) Read that way, it is Israel's leader saying Israel moved first and the United States joined, which sits alongside the American officials' insistence here that the US mission was narrow.

An Israeli push for more, reported that week. On 19 June 2025, three days before the strikes, an account relaying Axios wrote that, according to an unnamed senior US official, "Israelis are effectively encouraging the US to engage in a ground war with Iran if an air war doesn't immobilize Iranian nuclear sites," and might "do it with humans." The Axios article was not opened; this is a lead to verify, not a confirmed quote. @MonitorX99800, 19 June 2025. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md)

What it shows​

This is the first link in a chain of reassurances. In June 2025 the vice president said the United States had "no interest in boots on the ground," and when asked to rule ground troops out, he spoke of intent rather than a pledge. The same week, according to Axios as relayed on X, a senior US official said Israelis were "effectively encouraging the US to engage in a ground war with Iran if an air war doesn't immobilize Iranian nuclear sites." Nine months later the Pentagon was preparing "weeks of ground operations" in Iran, and in April 2026 more than 90 American service members went onto Iranian soil in the F-15E rescue. Set the June 2025 words beside that record on No Boots on the Ground.

Check it yourself​

No second source was opened for this page. The NBC, Pentagon, and CBS remarks are taken from this article. This page did not watch the interviews.

Status: Donald Trump, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio are alive.

Background: this is the weekend of the first American strike on Iran. On 13 June 2025 Israel began bombing Iran, and on the night of 21 to 22 June US B-2 bombers hit three nuclear sites (Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan) in an operation named Midnight Hammer. That round of fighting, which ended in a ceasefire days later, is often called the "12-Day War." The much larger US-Israeli war began eight months later, on 28 February 2026. What officials promised this weekend is the baseline for everything that followed.

Research captures: twitter/t52__v617.md, twitter/t52__v621.md, twitter/t13__v145.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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