According to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, President Donald Trump last year told X owner Elon Musk and media personality Tucker Carlson that he would not invade Iran.
The new book, according to reports, claims that the president said that in no uncertain terms, “We’re not doing that.”
The book, titled Regime Change, is expected to be published in the United States on Tuesday, June 23.
The authors also reportedly claim that, despite his public criticism of the president, Tucker Carlson would receive solicitations for advice from Trump, believing that he “still had sway over a significant portion of the base.”
“Carlson had criticized Trump for refusing to knock [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu over the Gaza carnage; now he would make clear to the president that a broader war would be his ruin,” the authors write, adding that Carlson told the president Israel wanted him to go to war with Iran.
The comment prompted the president to insist that he wouldn’t do it.
According to reports citing excerpts of the upcoming book, the president also reportedly told the firebrand right-wing media commentator that he believes he is the most powerful president in history.
Extreme Confidence
Per The Guardian, Trump told Carlson, “I don’t think there’s ever been an American president as powerful as I am.”
Haberman and Swan claimed that Carlson was struck by the “hubris” of the president and responded, “Certainly not since FDR. Really, the only thing that could wreck it is war with Iran.”
The book makes huge allegations about the president’s conduct behind the scenes, and is set to include accounts of the president’s decision to go to war with Iran, as well as shocking insider information about his conversations on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and his attempt to deport illegal aliens from the country.
Recent reporting also described how the president allegedly “regaled” both Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson with descriptions of “…missing hands,” referring to the 2024 “exploding pagers” attack conducted by Israel against Hezbollah in 2024.
“He had seen pictures, he said. Mutilated genitals and missing hands. He was horrified by the injuries, but fascinated as well, lingering on the scenes and the details,” the book reads.
“One survivor, he said, ‘looked like a great white shark came and just took a chunk out of him. It was like a shark bite. It was horrible.’”
What Did Trump Mean?
Much like Russian President Vladimir Putin believed that his “special military operation” in Ukraine would last a matter of weeks, it’s entirely possible that President Trump did not believe himself to be lying when he told Carlson and others that he did not plan to go to war with Iran.
In announcing the initial strikes in February, President Trump avoided directly calling the conflict a war, instead describing it as “major combat operations” and insisting he expected it to be over soon.
“A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. A vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world,” the president said.
Trump also downplayed talk of regime change, explicitly calling on the people of Iran to rise up against the regime and replace the regime themselves.
For Trump, the war in Iran has always been a limited mission focused on degrading the country’s military capabilities, knocking out its enormous missile arsenal, and preventing it from building a nuclear weapon.
To Trump, that may not constitute a “war” in a traditional sense – although, months into the conflict and with no end in sight, it’s hard to see how it isn’t.
The Worst Possible Time
The timing of the new book’s release is far from ideal for the president.
Just days after Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding designed to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and provide a 60-day window for negotiations, Iran announced on June 20 that it was once again closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran cited alleged violations of a recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, and officials said that they may refuse to open it again throughout the rest of the current negotiating period.
Trump himself acknowledged during a speech in Evian, France, that the decision to sign the MOU was driven in part by the fact that the world was headed toward an oil crisis within weeks.
About the Author: Jack Buckby
Jack Buckby is a British researcher and analyst specializing in defense and national security, based in New York. His work focuses on military capability, procurement, and strategic competition, producing and editing analysis for policy and defense audiences. He brings extensive editorial experience, with a career output spanning over 1,000 articles at 19FortyFive and National Security Journal, and has previously authored books and papers on extremism and deradicalization.
