President Donald Trump gave his favorite frenemy some head-turning comments revealing that he wanted to see regime change in Iran just one day before the U.S. launched strikes against Iran.
Despite the president repeatedly attacking MS NOW as “Fake News” and an enemy, it appears Trump did speak with Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough on Friday.
It came one day before the president announced in a video posted at 2:30 am ET that the U.S. was conducting a massive military operation in Iran, in which he called for regime change in the country of 90 million.
Scarborough said the president appeared to have fixed himself on a “Viking-like strategy where you strike, you pull back, you negotiate, you threaten another strike.”
The former GOP congressman-turned-newsman emphasized he was not sure that would happen with Iran, but said, based on his discussion with the president on Friday, Trump was “not interested in the niceties of the nuclear negotiations or the missile negotiations.”
“[Trump] declared that the Iranian leaders were bad people who had killed Americans over the decades and the regime needed to be taken out,” he recalled.
Scarborough said Trump didn’t use those exact words, but it appeared to be his strategy. The host said he thought it wouldn’t be so immediate but over the next three to four days.
The MS NOW host offered the explanation while seated next to his co-host Mika Brzezinski. He had been discussing how the president had talked about carrying out another regime change operation recently with the capture of Nicolas Maduro at the start of the year in Venezuela.
“In the words of the president yesterday to me, which I found to be very insightful in trying to figure out how he’s thinking of this, the president said, ‘We got two people out of Venezuela, and now we have a chance to make it work for the United States and the region,’ suggesting the same thing could happen with Cuba,” Scarborough recalled.
“And I believe this must be the president’s strategy with Iran,” the TV host continued on air. “I don’t see tens of thousands of boots on the ground. I don’t see this being another Iraq.”
In his eight-minute video released overnight, the president slammed the Iranian regime in a similar way to how Scarborough said he discussed it with him.
“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted ‘Death to America’ and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries,” Trump said.
He also delivered a direct message to the people of Iran to rise up and topple the country’s current leadership.
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,” Trump said.
