The U.S. and Israel genuinely went into the Iran conflict with a regime-change blueprint that had Ahmadinejad at the center, and the evidence is hard to dismiss. An Israeli strike on Feb. 28 was designed to free him from house arrest, and an associate confirmed he knew the Americans saw him as capable of managing Iran's political and military situation. Trump misjudged Iran's resilience and gambled on a risky leadership swap that even his own aides found implausible.

The timing is almost too convenient. As Iran remains politically fragile and Washington debates next steps, a sensational leak suddenly claims Trump considered reinstalling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — a figure guaranteed to inflame both Iranian factions and American audiences. In Iran, it fuels paranoia and elite distrust; in the U.S., it paints Trump as reckless. Conveniently, the story rests on unnamed officials — a leak-driven formula the New York Times has faced scrutiny over before.