Trump insists he must play role in picking new Iran leader as war rages on

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Mar 5, 2026

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President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted he must personally play a role in picking a new leader of Iran as the war against Tehran raged on with no end in sight.

Trump compared the selection of a new leader in Tehran to the U.S. military action in Venezuela that replaced President Nicolas Maduro with his onetime lieutenant Delcy Rodriguez.

“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy (Rodriguez) in Venezuela,” Trump said in an interview with Axios.

He added that Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, would not be an acceptable successor because he’s a “lightweight,” without elaborating.

“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said.

The remarks are the latest in a string of sometimes contradictory rationales that Trump and his administration have offered for the war that is nearing the one-week mark.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war Saturday, Iran has unleashed thousands of missiles and drones at Israel, American military bases and embassies and energy facilities across the Gulf.

Six U.S. service members have also died so far, along with several Israelis and civilians in other countries.

Additionally, the war has caused widespread economic pain with the price of oil soaring and travel disrupted for thousands.

After a slow start, the U.S. has launched evacuation flights for Americans stranded across the Middle East.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said Thursday it is too soon for diplomacy, as calls grow to end the widening war with Iran.

“Not yet, not yet,” he said. “We have to finish the job.”

He said Israel must continue “to hammer, to dismantle” Iran’s capabilities before turning to diplomacy, adding that he expects the war to last days or weeks, not months.

The focus on installing new leaders in Iran is controversial both with Trump’s base and the broader American public because it raises the specter of a more complicated and longer involvement and contradicts his bedrock campaign pledge to keep the U.S. out of foreign “forever wars.”

Trump called on Iran’s people to rise up and overthrow the Islamic Republic leadership in his initial video statement Saturday that heralded the joint military campaign with Israel.

The White House has since waffled on backing regime change in Iran, instead stressing that the goals included only preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, firing ballistic weapons and exercising “power outside its borders.”

It fumbled the messaging when Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Trump launched the U.S. attacks only because Israel had informed him that it planned to attack Iran regardless, which amounted to an uncomfortable acknowledgment that Israel was the driving force. Trump later denied that claim and Rubio cleaned up his own statement.

Israel has said it plans to assassinate any new Iranian leadership unless it vows to make peace with the Jewish state.

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