Trump Says He’s Not Necessarily Looking For Democracy In Iran

President Donald Trump made clear Friday that installing a democratic government in Iran is not on his list of priorities.

Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash, in a phone interview, that he simply wants a successor who will be “fair and just” and “treat the United States and Israel well, and treat the other countries in the Middle East.” He also told Bash he would accept another religious figure leading the country.

“Well I may be yeah, I mean, it depends on who the person is. I don’t mind religious leaders. I deal with a lot of religious leaders and they are fantastic,” Trump said. He told CNN that Iran’s ruling establishment had been “neutered” and predicted the transition would mirror what happened in Venezuela, where acting president Delcy Rodríguez took over after U.S. forces seized Nicolás Maduro. (RELATED: Trump Says US Decapitated Iranian Leadership As They Ate Breakfast)

Those remarks built on comments Trump made a day earlier. The president declared he must personally shape Iran’s leadership succession, just as he did in Caracas, Axios reported. He dismissed the late supreme leader’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as someone he would not tolerate in power. “They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” Trump told Axios.

President Donald Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash Friday that Iran’s leadership has been “neutered” and that he’s looking for new leadership that will treat the United States and Israel well, even if that’s a religious leader and it’s not a democratic state.

He also said Cuba “is… pic.twitter.com/0Sn48SW6Mk

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Trump struck a similar tone across several other interviews that day. He told Politico he would have “a big impact” over who governs Tehran or there would be no resolution. He told NBC he wanted to “clean out everything” as Iran picks new leadership. He also informed Reuters he would welcome Kurdish opposition groups launching a military campaign against the regime.

Trump’s stance tracks with his administration’s own playbook. CNN noted in a separate analysis that the second-term National Security Strategy cut references to democracy to roughly a quarter of those found in the 2017 version. The 2025 document stated Washington would pursue relationships “without imposing on them democratic or other social change that differs widely from their traditions and histories.”