The New Ayatollah Is Worse Than His Father, so What Will President Trump Do Next?

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was named Iran's third Supreme Leader on March 8, 2026, just ten days after U.S.-Israeli strikes killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Assembly of Experts announced his selection in a "decisive vote," though the process was marked by significant IRGC pressure and internal dissent among clerical members.

Mojtaba holds only the mid-level clerical rank of hojjatoleslam — not ayatollah — a legitimacy issue his father resolved by having the law changed; a similar workaround is expected.

President Trump openly called the selection "unacceptable," warned Mojtaba would "not last long" without U.S. approval, and characterized him as a "lightweight."

Mojtaba has deep ties to the IRGC dating back to his service in the Iran-Iraq War, and is widely believed to have personally supervised the violent crackdown on Green Movement protesters in 2009.

A year-long Bloomberg investigation revealed Mojtaba controls a global real estate and financial empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars, structured through shell companies and intermediaries across London, Dubai, and Europe.

Analysts expect Mojtaba to be more hardline than his father, more reliant on the IRGC, and unlikely to pursue meaningful compromise with the West in the near term.

Rread More: https://discernreport.com/what-to-know-about-new-ayatollah-mojtaba-khamenei/