Donald Trump asks why there would not be ‘regime change’ in Iran as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's aide warns of retaliation

US President Donald Trump on Sunday questioned the possibility of regime change in Iran following US military strikes against key Iran military sites over the weekend.

"It’s not politically correct to use the term, “Regime Change,” but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" Trump wrote on his social media platform.

In another post on TRUTH social media, Trump said, "The GREAT B-2 pilots have just landed, safely, in Missouri. Thank you for a job well done!!!..." B-2 bombers, who participated in the weekend strikes against Iran, returned home to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Sunday.

Trump's comments came just hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “This mission was not and has not been about regime change.”

Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing earlier that Iran's nuclear program had been "devastated," adding the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said his country's military strikes will "finish" once the stated objectives of destroying Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities have been achieved.

Iran warns of retaliation

Following the US' attack, Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said bases used by US forces could be attacked in retaliation.

"Any country in the region or elsewhere that is used by American forces to strike Iran will be considered a legitimate target for our armed forces," he said in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency.

“America has attacked the heart of the Islamic world and must await irreparable consequences, ” he was quoted by AFP as saying.

Another Khamenei advisor, Ali Shamkhani, said in a post on X that “even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn't over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also vowed that the United States would "receive a response" to the attacks.

(With inputs from agencies)