Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Reza Pahlavi looks like a “very nice person” but the US President did not seem enthusiastic about the exiled son of Iran’s last shah taking a leading role in any new Iranian government.
Asked whether Mr Pahlavi was being considered to lead Iran, Mr Trump replied: “I guess he is”, before saying his preference would be for someone already in Iran. Mr Pahlavi lives in the US.
“Some people like him, and we haven’t been thinking too much about that. It would seem to me that somebody from within, maybe, would be more appropriate.”
Mr Trump was speaking in the Oval Office during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“He [Mr Pahlavi] looks like a very nice person,” Mr Trump added. “But it would seem to me that somebody who is there, who is currently popular – if there is such a person – would be more appropriate. More moderate.”
Mr Pahlavi, 65, whose father was deposed in the 1979 revolution, has long sought to position himself as an alternative leader should Iran’s clerical government fall.
Living in a suburb of Washington, he enjoys support among many in the Iranian diaspora, particularly in the US.
After Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike on his headquarters in Tehran on Saturday, dozens of Iranian Americans took to the streets of Washington and other cities, celebrating and calling for Mr Pahlavi to take charge.
Mr Pahlavi’s media team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran for a fourth consecutive day on Tuesday. Tehran has fired missiles at American embassies and military bases across the region.
Mr Trump said that most of the people his administration had considered as potential successors in Iran have been killed.
“We have another group. They may be dead also,” he said.
Mr Trump said there is a “third wave” of possible candidates but “we don’t know those people".
Mr Merz, who arrived in Washington late on Monday, said Germany and the US were “on the same page” on Iran and would discuss the future leadership in Tehran.
“We will talk about the day after, what will happen then if [Iran's leaders] are out,” he said.
Mr Trump is facing pressure from progressives and members of his own Maga movement to explain why his administration – which campaigned on ending costly foreign conflicts – is again engaged in a distant war.
Six American service members have been killed.
A champion of “America first” foreign policy , Mr Trump said he ordered military action because he believed Tehran was preparing an imminent attack, even as nuclear talks were under way.
“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen,” he said. “So if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand – but Israel was ready, and we were ready.”
He has called the operation a major success, claiming Iran’s navy suffered heavy losses and its missile power was significantly weakened.
On Tuesday, he also criticised US allies, saying he had ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to sever all trade with Spain after the nation's leaders said the US would not be allowed to use its military bases in their country for operations against Iran.
“Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it,” Mr Trump said. “But we don’t have to.”
