Trump says a change of power in Iran would be “best” after sending a second aircraft carrier to the region

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that a change of power in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen” as the U.S. administration considers whether to take military action against Tehran.

Trump made the comments shortly after his visit to troops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, after confirming earlier today that it would deploy a second group of aircraft carriers in the Middle East.

“It seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” Trump said in an interview with reporters when asked about the pressure to overthrow Islamic clerical rule in Iran. “For 47 years, they talked and talked and talked.”

He watches: “Nobody wants war”: Iran spokesman discusses diplomatic track with US after Amman talks

The president has indicated in recent weeks that his top priority is for Iran to further reduce its nuclear program, but he indicated on Friday that this is only one aspect of the concessions the United States needs to make to Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who traveled to Washington this week for talks with Trump, is pushing for any agreement to include steps to neutralize Iran’s ballistic missile program and end its funding of proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

“If we do that, that will be the least of the mission,” Trump said about targeting Tehran’s nuclear program, which suffered major setbacks in US military strikes last year.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Before the June war, Iran was enriching uranium to 60% purity, a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

Trump’s comments calling for a potential end to the rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei come just weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a potential change in power in Iran would be “far more complex” than the administration’s recent efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

Rubio noted during a Senate hearing last month that regarding Iran, “you’re talking about a regime that has been in place for a very long time.”

“So this is going to require a lot of careful thought, if that possibility ever arises,” Rubio said.

Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, will be sent from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East to join warships and other military assets the United States has established in the region.

Trump had proposed holding another round of talks with the Iranians this week, but those negotiations did not materialize as a senior security official in Tehran visited Oman and Qatar and exchanged messages with American mediators.

“If we don’t get a deal, we’re going to need it,” Trump told reporters about the second aircraft carrier. He added: “He will leave very soon.”

Gulf Arab states have already warned that any attack could develop into another regional conflict in the Middle East, which is still reeling from the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranians began holding 40 days of mourning for the thousands killed in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protests across the country last month, adding to the internal pressures facing the sanctions-hit Islamic Republic.

The Ford, whose new deployment was first reported by The New York Times, will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for more than two weeks. US forces have already shot down an Iranian drone that approached Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran attempted to stop a US-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

In his exchanges with reporters on Friday, Trump still offered measured hope that an agreement with Iran could be reached.

“They gave us the deal they should have given us the first time,” Trump said of how to avoid US military action. “If they gave us the right deal, we wouldn’t do it.”

Ford was part of the strike force in Venezuela

That would be a quick turnaround for the Ford, which Trump sent from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean last October, where the administration has built up a massive military presence in the run-up to the surprise raid last month that captured Maduro.

It also appears to conflict with the Trump administration’s national security and defense strategies, which focus on the Western Hemisphere at the expense of other parts of the world.

In response to questions about Ford’s movement, US Southern Command said US forces in Latin America would continue to “counter illicit activities and malign actors in the Western Hemisphere.”

“While the force posture is evolving, our operational capability is not,” Colonel Emmanuel Ortiz, spokesman for Southern Command, said in a statement. He added, “The American forces remain ready to show strength, defend themselves, and protect American interests in the region.”

The Ford strike group will bring more than 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East but little in the way of capabilities or weapons not already within the Lincoln group. Having two carriers would double the number of aircraft and munitions available to military planners and Trump.

Given Ford’s current location in the Caribbean, it will likely be weeks before it is off the coast of Iran.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to force Iran to agree to curb its nuclear program, and earlier because of Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protests across the country.

Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Amman a week ago, and Trump later warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement with his administration would be “very painful.” Similar talks last year ultimately collapsed in June when Israel launched what became a 12-day war on Iran, which included US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

Long carrier deployments take a toll on crews and ships

Meanwhile, the USS Ford set sail for the first time in late June 2025, meaning the crew will soon be deployed for eight months. While it is unclear how long the ship will remain in the Middle East, the move prepares the crew for an unusually long deployment.

Adm. Darrell Caudle, the Navy’s chief officer, told reporters last month that keeping the Ford at sea any longer would be “very troublesome” and that he “doesn’t like extensions.”

Tankers are typically deployed for six or seven months. “When it goes beyond that, it disrupts lives, it disrupts things… funerals that were planned, marriages that were planned, children that were planned,” Caudle said.

Stretching a Ford would complicate its upkeep and upkeep by eliminating the repair schedule, adding more wear and tear, and increasing the equipment that would need attention, he said.

By comparison, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower had a nine-month deployment to the Middle East in 2023 and 2024, when it spent most of its time dealing with Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The ship entered maintenance in early 2025 as scheduled, but exceeded its planned completion date of July and remains in the shipyard to this day.

Caudle told The Associated Press in a recent interview that his vision is to deploy smaller, newer ships when possible rather than constantly resorting to massive aircraft carriers.

Madhani reported from West Palm Beach, Florida, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Josh Bock in Washington contributed to this report.