Cheerleader of US-Israeli war make U-turn as assault devastates Iran

After cheering on a war that is now killing Iranians and tearing apart the country, Masih Alinejad has warned Donald Trump against targeting civilian infrastructure, in a reversal that critics say lays bare the recklessness of those who backed the US-Israeli assault.

Before her latest warning, Alinejad had openly cheered the drive to topple the Islamic Republic, arguing that the regime “cannot be reformed” and celebrating the US-Israeli blows against Tehran as the start of a transition to “a secular democracy”. She later urged Trump to “finish the job.”

In a major U-Turn, Alinejad addressed to the US president on X and said the Islamic Republic is “a terrorist occupying force that will only respond to strength and decisive pressure”, but warned that attacking “Iran’s power plants and civilian infrastructure does not weaken the regime. It punishes the Iranian people.”

Mr. President, @realDonaldTrump

The Islamic Republic is a terrorist regime. It has made one thing brutally clear: the lives of its own people mean nothing to it.

It kills them. Then it demands money from their families to return their bodies.
And if those families dare to…

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 22, 2026

Alinejad said she felt a “moral and patriotic duty” to speak out after reports of a 48-hour ultimatum linked to the Strait of Hormuz, warning that a nationwide blackout would place millions of civilians in danger. She said power outages would shut down hospitals, disrupt water systems and push ordinary Iranians, already under severe economic pressure, deeper into crisis.

She also said such attacks would hand the Iranian authorities “a propaganda victory”, allowing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to blame foreign enemies. “A population fighting for basic survival in darkness and desperation has far less capacity to organise, protest, and resist,” she wrote.

Instead of hitting civilian infrastructure, Alinejad urged Trump to target “IRGC command centres, missile infrastructure, and the regime’s security and repression apparatus”, adding: “Disable the regime’s war machine, not the lives of the Iranian people.” She concluded by saying: “The objective must be the liberation of Iran, not its destruction.”

The comment are seen as a U-turn from one of the most prominent advocates of hardline action against Tehran. Alinejad is one of countless cheerleaders for the war now recoiling from its consequences, after supporting an attack that critics say was always going to go far beyond military targets.

Many of those figures are now being denounced on social media as naive and gullible, with critics arguing that there was never any serious reason to believe a US-Israeli war on Iran would spare civilians or remain limited in scope. From the outset, they say, the assault was always going to target Iran itself and seek to destroy the country under the guise of confronting the regime.

One follower on X said: “No, Masih. You don’t get to curate the conduct of the forces you lobbied to bring in. You argued for war for years. When anyone pointed out the obvious divergence between your aims and those of the interveners, you dismissed them as regime apologists. Have the decency to STFU”.

No, Masih. You don’t get to curate the conduct of the forces you lobbied to bring in. You argued for war for years. When anyone pointed out the obvious divergence between your aims and those of the interveners, you dismissed them as regime apologists. Have the decency to STFU.

— Poya Pakzad (@Pakzadesque) March 22, 2026

“Hypocrisy at its finest” said another on X. “You basically begged for this war on us. You only care about your own image, not the people of Iran”.

Hypocrisy at its finest. You basically begged for this war on us. You only care about your own image, not the people of Iran.

— Amir Bluekey (@Bluekey_Amir) March 22, 2026