Trump says Iran’s Reza Pahlavi ‘seems very nice’ but unsure if he can garner support

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice,” but expressed uncertainty over whether he would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over amid anti-regime protests in the country.

In an exclusive Reuters interview in the Oval Office, Trump said there was a chance Iran’s clerical government could collapse, but tried to temper expectations about the timeline in which that might happen and the viability of leadership from the country’s exiled crown prince, the son of the late shah of Iran who was ousted from power in 1979.

The US president has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, where thousands of people have been reported killed in a crackdown on the unrest against clerical rule. But he has conveyed mixed messages about the likelihood that he will order military action to support the protesters or to topple the regime.

“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump said of Pahlavi. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet.”

“I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me,” he added.

Trump’s comments went further in questioning Pahlavi’s ability to lead Iran after saying last week that he had no plans to meet with him and that it would not be “appropriate at this point.”

The US-based Pahlavi, 65, has lived outside Iran since before his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and has become a prominent voice in the protests. Iran’s opposition is fragmented among rival groups and ideological factions, including the monarchists who back Pahlavi, and appears to have little organized presence inside the Islamic Republic.

Trump said it is possible the government in Tehran could fall due to the protests, but that in truth “any regime can fail.”

“Whether or not it falls or not, it’s going to be an interesting period of time,” he said.

Pahlavi met over the weekend with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss the protests, according to the Axios news site, though the report did not indicate the outcome of the sit-down or whether the US would actively support Pahlavi if the regime does fall.

According to the report, a senior US official said the administration was “surprised” that Pahlavi’s name was being chanted during many of the demonstrations in Iran.

“There has been an ascendance of Pahlavi. They are chanting his name in demonstrations in many cities, and it seems to be happening organically,” the official told Axios.

The report also quoted Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying that support for Pahlavi within the country has more to do with a nostalgia for pre-revolution Iran than it does with actual support for the crown prince as a leader.

“Most of these protestors were born after the 1979 revolution and have nostalgia for an era they never experienced, when the country’s economy was growing, it was socially free, and it enjoyed a positive international image,” Sadjadpour told Axios. “Reza Pahlavi is the leader who, for many Iranians, best embodies that patriotism and that forward-looking nostalgia to make Iran great again.”

How much public support Pahlavi now commands in Iran, where he has not set foot for decades, is difficult to gauge.

Some protesters have voiced support for him in verified videos circulating on social media, with some chants of “Long live the shah,” suggesting his messages may be galvanizing some people. Many others simply call for sweeping political change, with slogans such as “Down with the dictator,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who under Iran’s system of clerical rule has the final say in all state matters.

“Everything Reza Pahlavi learned about ruling a country came from his own father, who failed for a reason. We had Pahlavis, now it is time for a democratic country,” said a young Iranian in a message sent from the north of the country to Reuters.

Pahlavi has frequently called for change, particularly during bouts of unrest, including mass demonstrations in 2009 over a contested election and nationwide protests in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died while in detention for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes.

In those protests, there were few obvious signs of momentum in support for a man whom the exiled royal court in 1980 declared shah after his father’s death from cancer in a Cairo hospital.

While Pahlavi represents a return to monarchy in Iran, he has indicated in recent messages that he is more interested in leading a democratic transition than in ruling as shah. He has long said he would let the people decide on who should rule them, but he has been clear that he wants an end to theocratic rule.

“There is only one way to achieve peace: a secular, democratic Iran. I am here today to submit myself to my compatriots to lead them down this road to peace and a democratic transition,” he said in a speech posted on X on June 23, shortly before the end of last year’s 12-day war with Israel.

Life in exile and support in diaspora

Born in 1960, Pahlavi was declared crown prince in 1967 at his father’s coronation in Tehran. Images show him sitting beside his father’s jewel-encrusted throne in a child’s version of the shah’s uniform, peaked cap on his lap and gold brocades on his small shoulders.

The monarchy’s lavish style at that time helped fuel discontent when Iranians compared it to their own hardships, with surging inflation and a big wealth divide as the shah’s bid to modernize the oil-powered economy left many people behind. Iranians also sought an end to repression by the shah and his feared security apparatus, SAVAK.

Pahlavi left Iran before his father was forced out, heading to the United States to train as a fighter pilot. He later wrote that he offered to serve in the war with Iraq in the 1980s, when the young theocratic Iranian state came under attack, but that his offer was turned down.

He studied political science at university.

From exile, Pahlavi, who is married and has three children, has garnered support in the diaspora, including Iranians in the US, with his criticism of Iran’s rulers and calls for change.

In 2023, he visited Israel, a close ally of Iran in his father’s day and an implacable foe of the Islamic Republic now, and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.

But he has gained little traction in winning personal support from Western governments abroad: neither in Washington, a close ally of Iran in the shah’s time, nor in European capitals. And his viability as a future leader of the country, even in an interim capacity, is unclear, as is the likelihood that the regime actually collapses.