Ali Khamenei had reservations about his son Mujtaba’s rise to power: “Not very bright”

The 56-year-old Mujtaba was elected to the post of supreme leader of Iran last week by the Council of Experts, about eight days after his father was killed in an Israeli missile attack, which was the opening blow in the all-out war between Israel and the United States against the Ayatollah regime. Mujtaba, who served as his father’s close aide and confidant for years, was apparently injured in the exact same attack.

Despite the intelligence information, in closed conversations, Trump told his associates that he is not sure that the details about Mujtaba have any practical significance at this stage. In his estimation, Iran is currently running without a real leader, and it is possible that the youngest son is not even alive. The White House now estimates that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are the ones who actually pull the strings and run the country, a figure that represents a dramatic change from the theocratic dictatorship that ruled Iran since 1979.

In an interview he gave to the Fox News network on Friday, Trump chose to publicly hint at Khamenei’s lack of trust in his son, saying: “Their leadership is gone. Their second leadership is gone. Now their third leadership is in trouble, and it’s not even someone the father wanted.” Trump even called the new supreme leader a “featherweight” and made it clear that he would be an “unacceptable” leader for Iran.