The revelation paints a chilling picture of an open-ended military campaign with no clear exit strategy, one that threatens to engulf the entire Middle East in unprecedented turmoil.
"Trump intends to go all the way with this move," a senior Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post. "He has already marked the target. He wants to replace the regime, and he has no intention of taking his foot off the gas."
The alarming assessment directly contradicts statements from American officials who spoke with Reuters and expressed serious doubts about the feasibility of regime change in Iran — suggesting a dangerous disconnect between the administration's ambitions and the reality on the ground.
In recent days, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump have publicly stated that the goal of "Operation Epic Fury" is to "create the conditions for the Iranian people to replace the regime." While some analysts initially interpreted this language as a face-saving formula that could allow Trump to declare victory and withdraw within days, Israeli officials insist otherwise. According to *The Jerusalem Post's* sources, Trump will not relent until the regime is physically replaced — a prospect that could mean weeks, months, or even years of sustained military engagement.
The situation has grown even more volatile as Iran has responded with what officials describe as "significant and indiscriminate missile fire" directed at Gulf states, pushing those nations toward supporting regime change in Tehran — a stunning geopolitical shift that could redraw the map of Middle Eastern alliances.
In a particularly striking disclosure, The Jerusalem Post reported that Trump revealed Sunday night he has identified three individuals he envisions as potential leaders of a post-war Iran, though he refused to name them. The notion of a US president handpicking foreign leaders has sent shockwaves through the international diplomatic community.
Yet experts warn that the administration's goals may be dangerously detached from reality. Dr. Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran and Shiite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told The Jerusalem Post that full regime change remains extremely difficult to envision. He suggested that a more plausible — though still challenging — outcome would be an internal leadership shift rather than a wholesale overthrow.
"As long as the Revolutionary Guards remain dominant, no leadership will be able to bring about significant change in Iran," Dr. Zimmt cautioned.
Perhaps most disturbingly, hopes that the Iranian population might rise up against its government appear premature at best. Dr. Zimmt noted that no rational person would take to the streets while missiles are raining down, and that Iran's feared Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards retain their capacity to brutally suppress any dissent.
"It will take a long time before Iranian citizens feel secure enough to take to the streets," he warned.
With US naval forces — including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford — actively launching sorties in support of the operation, and no diplomatic off-ramp in sight, the world watches anxiously as the conflict threatens to spiral into one of the most consequential military confrontations of the 21st century. The question now haunting capitals from Washington to Tehran is not whether this campaign will end, but at what staggering cost.