President Trump Says Iran’s Succession All ‘Wiped Out’

President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that America’s opening wave of strikes against Iran did more than cripple military targets. He said it shattered the regime’s leadership pipeline.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We had some in mind from that group — they’re dead. Now we have another group. They may be dead also based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

The president’s blunt assessment came as Israeli warplanes struck a building in Qom tied to Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts — the 88-member clerical body constitutionally tasked with choosing the country’s next supreme leader. Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Effie Defrin confirmed the strike, saying, “We hit several targets involved in terrorism.” Iranian state media claimed the building was empty. Israel says it is still reviewing the damage.

The White House says 49 top Iranian leaders were eliminated in the opening phase of what officials are calling Operation Epic Fury. Trump described the campaign as “ahead of schedule.”

But administration officials insist the mission was not designed to topple the regime outright.

“This is not a so-called regime change war,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a televised interview. “But the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it today.”

That distinction is now at the center of a high-stakes question: If Washington did not intend to engineer regime change, but multiple tiers of Iran’s leadership were removed, what happens next?

Under Iran’s constitution, the Assembly of Experts selects a new supreme leader when the position becomes vacant. In the meantime, a three-person council temporarily carries out the leader’s duties. That council is made up of the president, the judiciary chief and a senior cleric.

Following the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian authorities activated that mechanism. President Masoud Pezeshkian, judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and senior cleric Alireza Arafi are overseeing the interim phase.

The system was designed to prevent chaos. But Trump’s claim that “second or third place is dead” has cast doubt on how deep the leadership losses run.

Iran has not publicly confirmed a comprehensive list of clerical casualties. Israeli officials have suggested that senior figures were targeted. Among those reportedly viewed as potential successors before the strikes were Mohseni-Ejei, Hassan Khomeini — grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder — and Ali Asghar Hejazi, a longtime insider. Israeli sources have claimed Hejazi was killed. Tehran has not confirmed that report.

If multiple layers of succession planning were disrupted, analysts say the ripple effects could be significant.

History offers sobering examples. Libya descended into factional chaos after Moammar Gadhafi’s fall in 2011. Iraq spiraled into years of insurgency following the removal of Saddam Hussein.

Iran is not Libya. It has entrenched institutions, a centralized bureaucracy and formal succession rules. But if clerics cannot agree on a successor, power could shift elsewhere.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps controls vast military and economic assets. If religious authorities falter, the IRGC could consolidate greater control.

“When clerics cannot agree, power doesn’t disappear. It moves,” one Washington-based Middle East analyst said. “The Guards are positioned to move fast.”

Iran has already been strained by domestic unrest. Protests erupted nationwide late last year over economic hardship and political repression. The government responded with force and imposed sweeping internet blackouts.

Trump has claimed that 32,000 people were killed in the crackdown — a number significantly higher than independent estimates. Tehran has not released full figures.

Outside Iran, exiled opposition voices are watching closely.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, has promoted himself as a transitional figure should the clerical regime collapse. Maryam Rajavi, leader of a coalition of opposition groups, has called for the establishment of a democratic republic.

Trump appeared cautious about backing an exile.

“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” he said. “He looks like a very nice person, but somebody there, currently popular, if there is such a person.”

Trump has pointed to Venezuela as a more relevant comparison than Iraq. In that case, U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, but the country’s constitutional process continued under a successor. Washington applied pressure without direct occupation.

The administration appears to envision a similar outcome in Iran: institutions survive, leadership adjusts under pressure, and the country recalibrates.

Whether that scenario holds — or whether deeper fractures emerge inside Tehran’s clerical and military elite — could reshape the Middle East for years.

For now, one thing is clear. The strike campaign has not only altered Iran’s military landscape. It may have upended the very question of who rules next.