OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
12:12 PM – Saturday, February 14, 2026
The United States is sending the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Middle East as President Donald Trump comments that regime change might be “the best thing” amid rising tensions with Iran.
Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will be joining the USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group, including missile-guided destroyers. The Lincoln team has already in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area for two weeks.
Shortly after visiting troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Trump told reporters on Friday that he was deploying a second aircraft to the area.
When asked if he wanted a regime change in Iran, Trump replied, “Well, it seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.”
“For 47 years they’ve been talking and talking and talking and, in the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk,” the president continued, adding, “In the meantime, we have tremendous power [that] has arrived, and additional power, as you know, another carrier is going out.”
Trump warned on Thursday that Iran failing to reach an agreement with his administration about its nuclear program would be “very traumatic” for the country. Last week, delegations from Iran and the U.S. held talks in Oman on the subject.
“I think they’ll be successful. And if they’re not, it’s going to be a bad day for Iran,” Trump said of the discussions in Oman.
Asked about his timeline for a deal with Iran, Trump said he would like to see one over the next month.
“It should happen quickly,” he said. “They should agree very quickly.”
Trump answered a follow-up about the carrier’s relocation, indicating that he made the move “in case there isn’t a deal.”
The Ford was part of the large U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela that led ultimately to the capture of ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who now await trial in New York for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. They have both pleaded not guilty.
Though it will not introduce many new capabilities that the Lincoln group doesn’t already have, the Ford strike group will bring more than 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East, doubling the number of aircraft and munitions available to the commander in chief.
U.S. forces have already shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln last week, according to the Associated Press.
Ford’s position in the Caribbean means it will likely be weeks until it reaches the coast of Iran. The crew will also have been deployed for eight months, as it first set sail in late June 2025, making for an unusually long deployment, as carriers are typically deployed for six or seven months.
“When it goes past that, that disrupts lives, it disrupts things … funerals that were planned, marriages that were planned, babies that were planned,” said top Navy officer Admiral Daryl Caudle, who told reporters last month that he was “a big non-fan of extensions.”
Trump maintained hope, however, that a deal can be struck with Iran, explaining that military action can be avoided if Iran decides to “give us the deal that they should have given us the first time,” Trump said about how U.S. military action can be avoided.”
“If they give us the right deal, we won’t do that,” he stated.
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