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Republicans are split on whether President Donald Trump should use military force in Iran to bring about the regime change he has called for.
While some Republicans would trust Trump to pull the trigger and stand ready to back him, others urged the administration to use force as a last resort.
Across the board, lawmakers said change is coming to Iran one way or the other. Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Ind., believes that with American economic and diplomatic pressure, it’s only a matter of time.
“It’s going to happen,” Messmer said.
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People gather during a protest on Jan. 8, 2026, in Tehran, Iran. (Anonymous/Getty Images)
“I think eventually the regime is not going to be able to keep a thumb on their people,” Messmer said.
The U.S. on Monday deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln to U.S. Central Command waters in the Indian Ocean, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to on Monday. The move comes as Tehran’s government carried out a brutal crackdown in the country that left thousands dead earlier this month.
In its wake, Trump condemned the killing and called for regime change in Iran. Trump described a conversation with Iranian envoys, warning them about the consequences that would follow if they failed to stop the killings. “I said, ‘If you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit,'” Trump said.
Questions remain about whether the president may see some form of American intervention as a way to precipitate that change amid the ongoing unrest.
Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, trusts Trump’s decision-making process and believes that the U.S. would be acting consistently with its own interests to apply military power in toppling Iran’s current government.
“You know what, I trust President Trump, I trust our military,” Babin said.
“It is time for a regime change. There was a red line established by President Trump. He means what he says, and he says what he means in plain English,” Babin said, referring to warnings Trump made to Iran’s leadership about killing protesters.
“I would not want to be one of the ayatollah’s brutal henchmen mowing down and brutalizing, torturing their own people,” Babin said.
Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., agreed with Babin, framing his stance as a way the U.S. could eliminate terror threats well beyond just Iran.
“Iran is the center of terrorism. They’ll fund anyone who goes against Israel and who goes against the United States of America. So, if you don’t think I would be for strategically bombing the leadership of the dictatorship that runs Iran, you would be mistaken,” Meuser said.
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A former Iranian political prisoner said Trump is “the only U.S. President who is not afraid of [the Iranian] regime.” (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images; Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Other lawmakers urged more caution.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., believes force should come as a last resort.
“That should be the last option, but it needs to be taken as it comes right now. We need to actually understand the dynamics of why it would require military intervention,” Malliotakis said.
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Messmer believes that a change in leadership should come from the ground up.
“It really needs to come organically from the people of Iran. I mean, I think that, obviously, with the protests we’re seeing on the streets in Iran, there’s a high degree of interest. But at some point, they’ve got to take ownership and leadership,” Messmer said.
“Boots on the ground, you know, foreign intervention and costly overseas wars have been borne out to be pretty ineffective in the long run,” Messmer added.
Although lawmakers varied on their stances on military force, they all noted it wouldn’t be the first time Trump has ordered strikes on the country.
Trump said that the United States completed a “very successful” strike against Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, saying that Iran’s nuclear enrichment installations have been “obliterated.” ()
Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., believes Trump has proved that’s an option he’s willing to use when it comes to Tehran.
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“The president has long said that Iran could never have access to a nuclear weapon. Look at the decisive leadership that the president took against Iran to ensure that their access to nuclear weapons would be denied,” Yakym said, referring to the June 2025 American strike on Iran’s Fordow base, a nuclear enrichment facility Trump destroyed.
“And certainly, as we go forward, we will stand with the people of Iran,” Yakym added.
Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
