WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that he wants to see Iran’s leadership structure completely dismantled and that he has a few names for a “good leader.”
“We want to go in and clean everything up,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call. “We don’t want someone rebuilding in 10 years’ time.
“We want them to have a good leader. I think some of us will do a good job,” he said, declining to name anyone.
Trump said the people on his list are taking steps to make it through the war.
“We’re looking at them, yes,” he said.
Trump’s comments expand on remarks Trump made in an interview with NBC News on Saturday. Asked who would lead Iran next, Trump said, “I don’t know, but at some point they’re going to call me to ask me who they want,” adding, “I’m a little bit sarcastic when I say that.”
Trump responded Thursday to Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghi, telling “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Lamas that his country was prepared for a ground invasion by American and Israeli forces.
Trump called it a “nonsensical comment” and suggested an invasion was not something he was thinking about at the moment.
“It’s a waste of time. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose,” he said, adding that the pace and intensity of the strikes would continue.
Iran is facing a power vacuum after the death of Khamenei last weekend, with rumors swirling that his son Mojtaba Khamenei could be chosen as the new supreme leader.
Analysts say the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s dominant military, political and economic force, is poised to expand its power if it can survive the current conflict.
On the domestic front, Trump reiterated his frustration that Congress has not passed the Save America Act, which would have imposed new electoral requirements for registering to vote as proof of citizenship. The legislation has stalled in the Senate.
He said he was “not happy that it wasn’t moving” and that he had “expressed that to everyone”.
He then went further than he had previously, saying he would support a government shutdown if the bill didn’t make it to his desk.
“I’m going to shut down the government over that,” Trump said. “For me, it’s an important belief.”
In the Republican Senate primary in Texas, although he noted Paxton’s support for the Save America Act, Sen. Trump did not say who he would endorse in the race between John Cornyn and State Attorney General Ken Paxton.
At the same time, he said, “Cornin is a very underrated guy. He should have lost by 10 points, and he won. He’s a good guy.”
None of the three major candidates in the race could win a majority of the primary vote, prompting a May runoff between Cornyn and Paxton.
