Assembly Installs Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s Supreme Leader, Trump Floats Assassination Option

Hereditary succession inside a revolutionary republic is not new: North Korea’s Kim dynasty moved from Kim Il-sung (d.1994) to Kim Jong-il and then Kim Jong-un, each transition hardening the regime under external pressure. Similarly, the 1953 U.S.–backed coup in Iran and the 2003 “decapitation strikes” against Saddam show Washington’s long faith in leader-removal as leverage—often misreading nationalist backlash. Mojtaba’s elevation signals two deep trends: (1) Iran’s theocracy drifting toward dynastic militarism by formalizing an IRGC-backed son, and (2) the U.S. normalizing targeted killings as strategic policy. On a century arc this matters because it tests whether decapitation accelerates collapse or entrenches regimes; if Mojtaba survives, the Islamic Republic may resemble a hybrid clerical monarchy that outlasts sanctions much as the Pahlavis did (1925-79). If he falls, it could validate a future where great powers routinely assassinate heads of state, eroding the post-1945 norm against such acts.