Kathrine Frich
He also said they dont know who they are dealing with.
Winning a battle is one thing, but ending a war requires someone on the other side of the table to sign the peace deal.
In international conflicts, knocking out the people in charge can seem like a fast track to victory.
Sometimes, though, clearing out the top ranks leaves a messy power vacuum behind.
Too far in Ohio
According to the Daily Express, US President Donald Trump admitted at a Monday rally in Youngstown, Ohio, that his military campaign against Iran may have created a diplomatic headache.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters nearly eight months after launching the war in February, he acknowledged that wiping out Tehran’s top officials has made it tough to find anyone left to negotiate with.
“We might have gone too far with the leaders because we don’t know who the hell we’re dealing with anymore,” Trump told the Ohio crowd.
He also suggested that potential Iranian politicians are now afraid to step up. “Nobody wants to be the president of Iran,” Trump added.
Confusion at the top
As reported by the Daily Express, it is not completely clear which government role the American leader meant to name. Iran already has a sitting president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024 and can run again in 2028 under the country’s four-year, two-term system.
Instead, the real shake-up happened at the very top of the religious leadership. When the US and Israel launched their opening strikes on February 28, they killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and injured his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has since stepped in as the new supreme leader.
Even with the diplomatic confusion, Trump doubled down on his military boasts during the rally.
He called Iran “the No. 1 state sponsor of terror” and vowed the nation will never get a nuclear weapon. He also claimed Iran’s entire navy is “at the bottom of the sea,” insisting that all 159 warships are “resting beautifully in the bottom of the sea.”
Vance echoes the problem
Behind the scenes, other top White House officials are facing the same puzzle.
Earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance told Reuters that American officials are struggling to figure out who holds the real power in Tehran or how the Iranian government is making choices right now.
Still, Washington’s price for peace has not changed.
According to Reuters, Vance stressed that any future truce will require Tehran to sharply scale back its nuclear enrichment program, which is the process used to produce fuel for atomic weapons.
