One big problem with hereditary succession is that the gene pool tends to thin out over time. Ali Khamenei apparently knew that too, and more importantly, recognized the evidence for it in front of his own eyes.
CBS News reports this morning that US intel assessed Mojtaba Khamenei as an incompetent bungler, and that his father assessed him in pretty much the same terms:
U.S. intelligence has circulated to President Trump and to a small circle around him that Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had misgivings about his son replacing him, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The analysis showed the elder Khamenei was wary of his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, ever taking power because he was perceived as not very bright, and was viewed as unqualified to be leader, according to sources.
The information gathered also indicated that the father was aware that his son had issues in his personal life, according to sources within the administration, the intelligence community and people close to the president.
Other than that, Nepo Babytollah is the perfect choice! And actually, he was, because the IRGC groomed this unaccomplished dullard specifically for this moment. The military-industrial core of the regime made Mojtaba their protegé with the express purpose of co-opting the theocracy as cover for a full-on military junta. Khamenei’s sudden death gave the IRGC its opportunity.
And the beauty of this strategy is that it doesn’t much matter whether Mojtaba is alive, dead, or incapacitated. He is the IRGC’s creature now, especially after the IRGC forced whatever is left of the Assembly of Experts to elect him. Mojtaba owes them his position, and even if he’s still alive and fully capable – well, capable for Mojtaba, anyway – he can’t afford to contradict the IRGC, lest they call another fake election due to the unfortunate death of another Supreme Leader at the hands of the US and Israel. If Mojtaba is already dead, then the IRGC can just issue edicts in his name forever, using cardboard cutouts and AI images to keep up the pretense of life. Either way, though, the Islamic Republic is dead, and the military dictatorship of Iran has already launched.
Donald Trump is already having fun with this information. He’s made veiled references to this intelligence in the past few days, suggesting that Ali Khamenei didn’t approve of this succession and making some vaguely disparaging remarks about Mojtaba’s intellect. Yesterday, Trump leaned into the cardboard-cutout dodge and challenged the regime to provide real-time proof of his status:
The president on Saturday questioned whether Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive after Khamenei did not appear on camera to issue his first statement as Iran’s leader on Thursday.
In a written statement, Khamenei, the son of slain predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz and attacking U.S. allies in the region.
“I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” Trump said on the phone Saturday.
“I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender,” Trump added, but called the news of his death “a rumor.”
The IRGC regime’s front man, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, immediately contradicted Trump, but thus far has either refused or been unable to produce proof of life:
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Saturday said there was “no problem” with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, days after US President Donald Trump suggested he had been “damaged” during recent strikes.
The 56-year-old leader has not appeared in public since an airstrike that killed his father and former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along with other family members.
Iranian officials have earlier confirmed that the new leader was injured in the attack but have not provided further details.
“There is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties,” Araghchi told a news channel.
Expect Trump to lean into both of these threads in coming days. The US and Israel will likely make both a feature of their propaganda efforts to convince Basij and low-level IRGC operatives to either switch sides or desert. Both the Israelis and the US are already heavily targeting the organs of internal suppression to allow a popular uprising to pull down the IRGC’s regime, and the suggestion that they have usurped the religious authority of the mullahs to play Weekend at Mojtaba’s will provide even more cause for their disaffection.
To get that revolt rolling, the US and Israelis have to help the population coordinate and strategize the upcoming revolt. It’s not yet clear that this has restored the Internet that the IRGC has locked down since the uprising in January, but it’s clear that we are definitely interested in peeling back the IRGC’s controls on communications. Stay tuned, so to speak.
Haven’t seen any increase in Internet traffic yet at either of these monitoring sites, but let’s hope this might soon come to pass.https://t.co/p7snAGfQ0Chttps://t.co/F6UcZH9euV https://t.co/xq6PJQFIjJ
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) March 15, 2026
Addendum: I’ve been trying to make a Hunter Biden joke work for this post, but I kept running up against a hard decision: Is Mojtaba Hunter, or is Mojtaba Joe? I’m leaning toward the latter.
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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