U.S. President Donald Trump has raised questions about the capacity of Iranian opposition leader Reza Pahlavi to command support within his homeland, while again attributing the deadlock in Ukraine peace negotiations to Kyiv rather than Moscow.
Speaking exclusively to Reuters on Wednesday from the Oval Office, Trump described Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, as “very nice,” but expressed scepticism over whether the exiled royal would be able to consolidate influence inside Iran.
“I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump said. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet. I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”
Pahlavi, 65, who has lived outside Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has emerged as a prominent voice among the country’s fragmented opposition.
Trump noted that while Tehran’s clerical government could potentially collapse amid ongoing protests, “any regime can fail,” adding that “whether or not it falls or not, it’s going to be an interesting period of time.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Trump also touched on domestic politics and the Republican Party’s prospects ahead of November’s midterm elections, acknowledging the historical trend of the president’s party losing congressional seats two years after a presidential victory.
“When you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” he said. “But we’re going to try very hard to win the midterms.”
Trump’s remarks come as both Iran and Ukraine remain focal points of U.S. foreign policy, with the former facing widespread protests against clerical rule and the latter embroiled in a protracted conflict that has drawn sustained international attention. - January 15, 2026
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