Iran’s ‘new’ regime looks much the same, only harsher

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/middleeast/trump-claims-iran-regime-change-intl 

US President Donald Trump said this week that Iran’s new leadership is “less radical and much more reasonable.” Trump and the Pentagon have repeatedly claimed that regime change has happened.

If anything, the war has given more power to the hardline military factions inside the complex system of Iranian governance, as well as bolstered anti-American sentiments.

“When President Trump says he has changed the regime in Iran, he’s right in one sense – he’s changed it to a much more radicalized regime,” said Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group. “All of these individuals who are now in place – the new national security advisor, the new head of the IRGC, the speaker of the parliament, who himself was a former commander of Revolutionary Guards – they all have been involved in domestic repression extensively in their past lives.”