JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div id="register_tab" class="htmlobject_tabs">
<ul>
<li class="current" id="tab_register_tab0"><span><a onclick="this.blur();" href="user/" data-message=""><i class="fa fa-sign-in">icon</i> Login to the cloud</a></span></li>
<li id="tab_register_tab1"><span><a onclick="this.blur();" href="index.php?langselect=&amp;register_action=account" data-message=""><i class="fa fa-plus">icon</i> New account</a></span></li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height:0px;clear:both;" class="floatbreaker">&nbsp;</div>
</div>

JavaScript

$('#register_tab li a').each(function(e){
				var mstr = $(this).html();
				console.log(mstr);
				var mre = /(<i[^>]*><i>).*/ig;
				var mnewstr = mstr.replace("(<i[^>]*><i>).*/g", "1");
				//var mnewstr = mstr.replace(mre, "$1", "");
				console.log(mnewstr);
				$(this).html(mnewstr);
				menuarr[e] = mstr; 
			});