Donald Trump‘s plans for regime change in Iran have gone pear-shaped.
The president told reporters on Tuesday that his administration’s preferred successors to the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were killed in recent airstrikes on Iran. In a press conference at the White House, Trump openly worried that the attack on Iran would be for naught.
“The worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” he said. “You go through this and in five years you realize you put somebody in who is no better.”
When asked who he would pick to lead the country, Trump admitted that his administration’s top candidates in the Iranian government had been killed.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said. Now, we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty sure we’re not going to know anybody.”
Trump: "Most of the people we had in mind are dead. We had some in mind from that group that is dead. And now we have another group. They may be dead also. Pretty soon we're not gonna know anybody. I mean, Venezuela was so incredible because we did the attack and we kept govt… pic.twitter.com/WRwIRlhBpA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 3, 2026
Despite the echoes of previous destabilizing attacks in the Middle East by Republican administrations, Trump’s Cabinet has waved away any comparison between Operation Epic Fury and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this week that the U.S. has no plans for a prolonged conflict with Iran.
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“This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this president,” Hegseth said.
Trump said he expects the operation to last three to four weeks.
