Tulsi Gabbard’s Announcement: ‘Washington’s Old Regime Change Era is Over’

 Has Washington Turned Away from Bangladesh’s Regime Change?

International Desk

Washington/Dhaka, 2 November 2025: The recent statement by US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has caused a global uproar. Addressing Middle Eastern officials in Dubai, she said, “Washington’s old regime change and our preferred governance system or nation-building era is over.

At the opening session of the International Institute for Security Studies (IISS)’s annual security summit ‘Manama Dialogue’, Gabbard said, “Trillions and trillions of dollars spent, countless human deaths—in exchange, an increase in enemies over friends and the rise of Islamic terrorism like ISIS, and in many cases, the creation of even more insecure situations—that foreign policy era is over.”

This announcement reflects Trump’s second term ‘America First’ policy, which discards previous human rights-centered interventions and shifts toward economic prosperity and regional stability. But in light of this statement, the ‘regime change’ allegations surrounding Bangladesh’s July-August 2024 uprising have resurfaced, where accusations of US ‘Deep State’ funding are reflected in Trump’s own statements.

Gabbard emphasized that the previous ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy—such as overthrowing regimes, imposing democracy on others, and intervening in unknown conflicts—has only increased enemies and given birth to terrorism. Under Trump, the focus is now on economic interests and stability, such as through agreements like the Abraham Accords. This is even more significant in the context of Gaza’s fragile ceasefire and Iran’s nuclear threats.

Bangladesh’s “Color Revolution” or Regime Change

But this ‘end of an era’ announcement is particularly relevant for Bangladesh, because the July-August 2024 student uprising that led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government is described as a ‘Deep State’-sponsored regime change. In this uprising, more than 600 people were killed, and Sheikh Hasina took refuge in India. Political analysts say this is a classic ‘color revolution’—like Iran (1953), Ukraine (2014), which happened in Bangladesh.

This allegation is linked to Trump’s own statements. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had canceled USAID’s $29 million ‘political landscape’ funding, which was alleged to be related to ‘political change’ in Bangladesh. This action by Elon Musk-led DOGE was called Trump’s war against ‘Deep State bugs’.

In Bangladesh’s context, these funding allegations run deep. In May 2024, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Donald Lu visited Dhaka, and just one month later, the uprising began in July. The allegation is that USAID and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation funded student groups through NGOs like BRAC, using opponents like BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami to turn an innocent issue like the “quota movement” into a government-toppling movement. Sheikh Hasina had accused Washington of ‘regime change’ before the 2023 elections, and the Russian Foreign Ministry warned in December 2023 that if the election did not go in Biden’s favor, an ‘Arab Spring’-like operation would occur in Bangladesh. After this uprising, Yunus’s meeting with Alex Soros and the event of stopping USAID funding made Trump’s statements even more relevant.

Gabbard’s statement is a relief for countries like Bangladesh, as it reduces the possibility of future interventions. But the question arises: if the ‘Deep State’ era is over, then who is responsible for the 2024 uprising?

However, it is clear that in whichever countries regime change has occurred due to Washington’s intervention, Washington will no longer cooperate with those “puppet governments” except for commercial purposes. In Bangladesh’s case too, perhaps the US Embassy’s influence or meddling in various aspects of governing the country is about to stop. And if this is true, then Dr. Yunus’s interim government, whom Washington installed in power, may end up becoming guardian-less!

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