Trump says he’d like the next leader of Iran to come from inside the country

US President Donald Trump declines to say that he has put a target on the back of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

“I don’t want to say that,” Trump says during a press conference on the Iran war. “I don’t want to say whether or not he does because that would be inappropriate.”

However, he acknowledges that he’s not encouraged by what he’s heard so far about the new leader.

“We think it’s going to lead to more of the same problem for the country. So I was disappointed to see their choice,” Trump says.

Asked whether he’d want the leader of Iran to be someone from inside or outside the country, Trump responds that he “likes the idea of internal” because it has “worked well” in Venezuela.

He says that after the Iraq war, there were attempts to clear house completely, which led to the rise of ISIS. “We don’t want that.”

He again dismisses the son of Iran’s pre-revolutionary shah due to his not having been in the country for decades.

“We have a formula that’s been very good so far, and I think it will continue to be good,” Trump says, apparently endorsing the idea of finding someone from within the regime to take over and work with the US.

Trump in January pledged to assist Iranian protesters who were gunned down en masse for demonstrating against the regime.

He is pressed on whether he’d be betraying them by making a deal with a new leader of the same regime.

“Will I help them? I’d like to if they can behave, but they’ve been very menacing,” Trump says before praising the Iranian people.

“I’d love to help them, but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped, and right now they’re in a system that only allows failure,” he says.

Asked whether he and US Vice President JD Vance see eye-to-eye regarding the war, Trump admits that Vance “philosophically… was maybe less enthusiastic.

“But he was quite enthusiastic, [and] I felt it was something we had to do,” Trump adds.