Donald Trump says next supreme leader won’t “last long” without his support
March 8, 2026 10:13 pm
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the new supreme leader “is not going to last long” without his approval as Iran prepares to announce a successor to its longtime ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump told ABC News in an interview. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to be involved in the selection of Iran’s next leader, saying yesterday that he doesn’t “want to come back every 10 years.”
“We want to pick a president that’s not going to be leading their country into a war,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday.
Trump previously told CNN he was open to having a religious leader in Iran.
“I mean, it depends on who the person is. I don’t mind religious leaders. I deal with a lot of religious leaders and they are fantastic,” he said last week.
Source: CNN
- Agencies
