Rachel Maddow

It does not appear that Donald Trump has learned the lessons of history.

Joining us now is former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes.

Ben, thank you very much for being with us today for this fast-developing story.

I really appreciate you making time.

Let me just ask your reaction in general.

For me, I would put to you specifically the point that the president is explicitly saying this is a regime change war.

This is intended to change out the government of the nation of Iran.

What's your reaction to what he's done and why he's saying he's doing it?

In terms of what might happen next, and if we take the Trump administration, I can't believe I'm saying this, if we take them at their word that they are trying for regime change, I mean, if they were trying to make possible, make plausible some sort of populist uprising of the Iranian people to take over

their government to throw out the regime to confront and defeat the domestic security services and to displace the Ayatollah and his regime and to install something totally new.

Presumably, there would have been things that the U.S.

and its allies could have done to try to build up the capability of that kind of a domestic populist force.

Is there any sign that we've done anything like that to actually support the Iranian people toward the type of regime change they seem to be fantasizing about?

Right.

And when people talk about this blossoming into some sort of region-wide conflict, it's not necessarily that it is a region-wide war.

It may be region-wide instability and chaos.

And that's part of the reason why.

Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor.

Ben, I know we're going to be calling on you over the course of the day and into tonight for further advice and analysis on this.

It's really helpful to have you here.