Still searching for next Iranian leader, Trump said certain ‘loser prince’ shah not an option

While US President Donald Trump’s administration is still searching for a leader it can work with in Iran, one thing American officials are reportedly certain of is that the exiled son of Iran’s former shah is not the right fit.

Trump has several times downplayed Reza Pahlavi’s potential as the postwar leader of Iran due to him not having lived in the country since he was a child. He has instead said he prefers finding someone from within the country who is willing to work with the US, like Washington did with Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. The US has most recently set its sights on Iran parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, though he is seen as particularly close to the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and therefore unlikely to capitulate to Washington’s demands.

As for the son of the former shah, one US official tells the Politico news site, “Now do you put in Reza Pahlavi? God, no… He grew up outside. That is the last thing you want to install there. That’ll mean chaos.”

A second US official confirms to the news site that Pahlavi is “not on the table.”

The New Yorker reveals that Trump and his aides have been referring to Pahlavi as the “loser prince.”