WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday indicated that he wants to see Iran’s leadership structure fully removed, and that he has some names in mind for a “good leader.”
“We want to go in and clean out everything,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period.”
“We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job,” he added, while declining to name anyone.
The president also said he’s taking steps to make sure the people on his list make it through the war alive.
“We are watching them, yeah,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments expand on remarks he made in an interview with NBC News on Saturday. Asked who will next lead Iran, Trump replied, “I don’t know, but at some point they’ll be calling me to ask who I’d like,” adding that he was “only being a little sarcastic when I say that.”
Trump also responded on Thursday to comments Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made to “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas, when he said his country is ready for a ground invasion by American and Israeli forces.
Trump called that a “wasted comment” and suggested an invasion is not something he’s thinking about at this time.
“Its a waste of time. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their Navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose,” he said, adding that the pace and intensity of strikes will continue.
Iran is now facing a power vacuum after the death of Khamenei last weekend with rumors swirling that his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, could be chosen as the new supreme leader.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the dominant military, political and economic force in the country, is also poised to expand its power if it can survive the current conflict, analysts say.
On the domestic front, Trump reiterated his frustration that Congress has not passed the SAVE America Act, legislation that would impose new election requirements like proof of citizenship to register to vote. The legislation is currently stalled in the Senate.
The president said he’s “not happy it’s not moving,” and that he’s “expressed that to everyone.”
He then went further than he’s gone before by saying he would support a government shutdown if the bill doesn’t make it to his desk.
“I would close government over it,” Trump said. “To me, that’s a core belief.”
On Texas’ Republican Senate primary, Trump did not say who he would endorse in the race between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, though he did note Paxton’s support for the SAVE America Act.
At the same time, he said, “Cornyn is a very underrated person. He was supposed to lose by 10 points and he won. He’s a good man.”
None of the three major candidates in the race was able to win a majority of the primary vote, prompting a May runoff between Cornyn and Paxton.
