{"id":57281,"date":"2026-01-21T18:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=57281"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:02:06","slug":"john-mearsheimer-the-trump-plan-to-wreck-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/21\/john-mearsheimer-the-trump-plan-to-wreck-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mearsheimer: The Trump Plan To Wreck Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from John’s Substack<\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I wrote a Substack post yesterday (20 January 2026) titled \u201cThe Tag Team Fails in Iran<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I described the Trump administration\u2019s playbook for producing regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n

Here is my description of the first of the four key elements in that plan:<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>, the US has long been working to wreck the Iranian economy with sanctions. Indeed, President Trump redoubled those efforts after moving into the White House last January (2025). His aim was to bring \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d to bear on Iran\u2019s economy and he did just that. There is no question that Iran\u2019s leaders mismanaged their economy in certain ways, but Western sanctions did far more damage than government ineptitude. The ultimate goal of the sanctions, of course, is to inflict so much pain and punishment on the Iranian people that they rise up and overthrow their government.<\/p>\n

Here is the Secretary of the Treasury making my point clearly and succinctly:<\/p>\n

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Here is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitting the goal of U.S. sanctions is to make ordinary Iranians so miserable that they rise up and overthrow the government. This is the kind of thing everybody knows but is rarely admitted openly. pic.twitter.com\/4Qi9HJNmbQ<\/a><\/p>\n

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n