Trump: Next Iranian supreme leader ‘not going to last long’ without US approval

By Lazar Berman

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8 March 2026, 5:20 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

US President Donald Trump speaks with the media aboard Air Force One during a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, on March 7, 2026. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)

US President Donald Trump says that Iran’s next leader won’t “last long” if he doesn’t have the approval of the White House.

“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump tells ABC News, as Iran prepares to name a replacement for late supreme leader Ali Khamenei. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”

“I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again, or worse let them have a nuclear weapon,” says Trump.