Even as Iran’s exiled crown prince repeatedly called on the US President Donald Trump to support Iranians protesting against clerical regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it doesn’t look like the POTUS is fully trusting Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s last Shah.
Though Trump described Pahlavi as “very nice” but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over. Track latest updates on Iran unrest
Reza Pahlavi’s protest calls earlier this month are believed to have escalated the uprising against Iranian regime.
What Trump said
“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country. And we really aren’t up to that point yet,” he said in an interview with the Reuters where he said there was a chance Iran’s clerical government could collapse.
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“I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me,” he was quoted as saying.
Amid the ongoing unrest in Iran that has taken a deadly turn as thousands have reportedly been killed, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene to support the Iranian protesters who have taken to streets in massive numbers in protests that started last month with disgruntlement over economic woes.
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Despite Trump’s support for Iranians who are now demanding the end of the clerical rule, he seemed reluctant to lend his full support to Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran, who was ousted from power in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution.
What is happening in Iran?
The protests in Iran that began on December 28, 2025 from Tehran over dwindling economy and falling Rial value have now taken a deadly turn as reports suggest 3,400 people have died so far. The protests intensified last week as massive crowds poured out on streets in major cities such as Tehran and Mashhad, that coincided with Pahlavi’s call for intensified agitation against the clerical rule.
Iran has accused US and Israel for orchestrating the protests. In latest, Mohammad Pakpour, commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said on Wednesday that the country would give a “decisive response” to what he described as the death of Iranian “martyrs and security protectors,” according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
Meanwhile, Trump also said he had been told that killings in Iran’s crackdown on protests were easing and that he believed there was no current plan for large-scale executions, adopting a wait‑and‑see posture after earlier threatening intervention.
Iran also said it had “no plan” to hang people and the Iranian state media on Thursday reported that a 26-year-old man arrested during protests in the city of Karaj would not be given the death sentence.
Earlier this week, rights organisation Hengaw reported that 26-year-old Erfan Soltani who was arrested in connection with protests in Karaj city, was due to be executed on Wednesday.