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Trump expresses doubts over Iran's exiled crown prince

04 March 2026 10:08 (UTC +04:00)

US President Donald Trump again expressed skepticism that Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last shah, could run Iran in the future, but did not identify another potential leader, APA reports, citing BBC.

In an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump declined to specify anyone else, saying that "most of the people we had in mind are dead".

Pahlavi, 65, has claimed that he is "uniquely placed" to lead a transitional government and indicated that he would be willing to return to Iran as soon as possible for the first time in 47 years.

Trump, however, has publicly repeated doubts about whether the exiled crown prince has the support necessary among Iranians in his homeland.

Speaking alongside Merz, Trump said that while "some people like him", the administration has not "been thinking too much about that."

Trump said he was unsure "how he'd play within his own country."

"I don't know whether or not his country would accept his leadership," he added. "Certainly if they would, that would be fine with me."

Instead, Trump said that he believes someone already within Iran "would be more appropriate." However, he did not identify a potential option.

"Most of the people we had in mind are dead," he said.

The country's last leader, Ayatollah Khamenei - along with a large swathe of the country's senior-most leaders - was killed in the initial wave of US and Israeli strikes. Another strike reportedly targeting surviving Iranian leaders took place on Tuesday, Trump confirmed.

As a potential successful model, he pointed to Venezuela, where "we kept the government totally intact" after the capture of Nicolas Maduro on 3 January.

Pahlavi has been in exile in the US, primarily in the Washington DC area. He is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, the largest gathering of conservative activists in the country, in Texas later in March.

In an interview with CBS, the BBC's US partner on 1 March, Pahlavi said that he believes Iranians trust him because "they cannot associate me in any way or form to the revolution or part of this regime."