Trump: Iranians don’t know who their leader is

President Trump says Iran has been defeated and reduced to the status of a “failed nation,” though the US may still need to “smack” the Islamic Republic around.

By World Israel News Staff

President Donald Trump said Monday that it is unclear if anyone is firmly in control of Iran, saying the country’s leadership has been thrown into disarray by months of war while warning that the United States could still launch additional strikes against Tehran.

Asked in the Oval Office who is currently running Iran, Trump said the answer was unclear even inside the Islamic Republic.

“They don’t really know. In my opinion, they don’t know who their leader is,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments came amid unusual uncertainty surrounding Iran’s supreme leadership.

Mojtaba Khamenei officially succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the elder Khamenei was killed in the opening US-Israeli strikes in February.

But the younger Khamenei, who was badly wounded in the same attacks, has not appeared publicly or been heard from in the six months since becoming supreme leader.

Iranian officials maintain that Khamenei remains in control and is governing from a secure location while recovering from his injuries, but his prolonged absence has fueled speculation inside and outside Iran about his health and the extent to which he is personally directing the government.

Much of Iran’s day-to-day security and wartime decision-making has fallen to senior military, clerical and national security officials.

Trump portrayed that uncertainty as part of a broader collapse in Iran’s ability to function as a military power.

“They’re a failed nation,” Trump said, before listing damage to Iran’s armed forces and economy. He said Iran’s navy, air force and surveillance capabilities had been devastated and claimed the government was struggling to pay its soldiers.

But Trump made clear that he did not consider Iran’s weakened condition a reason for Washington to rule out additional military action.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

The warning followed the first direct exchange of US-Iranian attacks in roughly a month.

US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday after US Central Command said Revolutionary Guard forces were preparing rockets equipped with sea mines that posed an imminent threat to shipping.

Iran subsequently fired ballistic missiles at US bases in Jordan. Iranian officials described the strikes as retaliation for the attack on Larak, while warning that further US attacks would bring another response.

Trump indicated Monday that Washington would retaliate.

“We’re going to hit them hard,” he said, adding, “There will be a response.”

At the same time, the president sought to play down suggestions that the renewed fighting represented a return to the large-scale US bombing campaign conducted earlier in the conflict.

“This is a relatively little war for us. This is not a big war,” Trump said when asked about concerns over the strain the conflict was placing on US military resources.

Trump also argued that American forces had already inflicted overwhelming damage on Iran.

“We went into Iran, and we are beating the hell out of them,” he said.

The administration’s immediate military focus remains the Strait of Hormuz, where Washington has been attempting to restore commercial shipping while preventing Iran from rebuilding the ability to mine or attack vessels.

“We have the Strait of Hormuz in extremely good shape,” Trump said Monday, claiming US naval assistance had allowed large numbers of ships to move through the strategic waterway.

The latest confrontation began when CENTCOM said Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces were preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines from Larak Island.

The US military described its response as “limited, precise” action against forces posing an imminent threat to the strait. Iranian media reported three people were killed in the attack, including two Revolutionary Guard Navy personnel.

Despite Trump’s threats of additional conventional strikes, he explicitly rejected the idea that the United States needed to use nuclear weapons against Iran.

Asked whether he had ruled out a nuclear strike, Trump said there was “no reason” to consider one because Iran was already “totally defeated militarily.”

“So now I defeat ’em and now I should use a nuclear weapon on top of ’em?” Trump asked, calling the suggestion a “stupid question.”

The comments came the same day Trump issued an even broader attack on Iran on Truth Social, declaring the Islamic Republic “officially a Failed Nation” and saying its leadership was “in total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country.”

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