Trump Says He May Try to ‘Wipe Out’ Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Trump then responded: “Yeah, it does. We will see what’s happening.”

The IRGC is one of Iran’s most powerful organizations and influences several aspects of governance in the Islamic Republic, from politics to security. The IRGC, which currently has an estimated 190,000 active members, rose out of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect the Iranian government and has since been the clerical regime’s ideological armed wing, running parallel to Iran’s regular troops. 

Since the start of the war in late February, the IRGC has been among those leading Iran’s response, with military and security officials, like commander-in-chief Ahmad Vahidi and IRGC Navy commander Ali Azmaei, pushing to continue the skirmishes with the U.S. instead of backing down.

The U.S. designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization in 2019. The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it sanctioned seven individuals and entities supporting the IRGC’s weapons procurement and for enabling Iran’s destabilizing actions.