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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that he wants to see Iran’s leadership structure completely removed and that he has a few names in mind for a “good leader.”
“We want to go in and clean it all up,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period.
“We want them to have a good leader. We have people who I think would do a good job,” he added, declining to name anyone.
Trump also said he was taking steps to ensure those on his list survive the war.
“We monitor them, yes,” he said.
Trump’s comments expand on remarks he made in an interview with NBC News SATURDAY. Asked who would lead Iran next, Trump responded, “I don’t know, but at some point they’ll call me and ask who I want,” adding that he was “only being a little sarcastic when I said that.”
Trump also responded Thursday to Statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas says his country is prepared for a ground invasion by U.S. and Israeli forces.
Trump called it an “unnecessary comment” and suggested an invasion was not something he was thinking about at the moment.
“It’s a waste of time. They lost everything. They lost their navy. They lost everything they could lose,” he said, adding that the pace and intensity of the strikes would continue.
Iran faces a power vacuum following Khamenei’s death last weekend, with rumors that his son Mojtaba Khamenei could be chosen as the new supreme leader.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s dominant military, political and economic force, is also poised to expand its power if it can survive the current conflict, analysts say.
Domestically, Trump reiterated his frustration that Congress has not passed the SAVE America Act, legislation that would impose new election requirements for voter registration, such as proof of citizenship. The bill is stalled in the Senate.
He said he was “not happy that it’s not moving” and that he had “expressed that to everyone.”
He then went further than before by saying he would support a government shutdown if the bill didn’t reach his desk.
“I would shut down the government over this,” Trump said. “For me, this is a fundamental belief.”
On Texas Republican Senate PrimaryTrump did not specify who he would support in the race between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, although he noted Paxton’s support for the SAVE America Act.
At the same time, he said: “Cornyn is a very underrated person. He was supposed to lose by 10 points, and he won. He is a good man.”
None of the three main candidates running failed to win a majority of the primary votes, prompting a May runoff between Cornyn and Paxton.