Mojtaba Khamenei has been officially named the next supreme leader of Iran. There’s just a few small problems.

First of all, it’s an open question whether or not Mojtaba is still alive. The Babylon Bee snarked that Iran would have to choose a dead man because you can’t kill the supreme leader if he is dead already, but this may be one of those moments when satire isn’t that far from the truth. We already know that Mojtaba’s wife and son were killed in the same strike that took out his father Ali Khamenei. Reportedly, he still has a son and daughter still living. But Mojtaba has not been seen in public, or even in recently recorded video, since the first airstrikes. Is he badly injured? Is he actually dead? We don’t know yet.

What we do know is that neither the surviving clerics who were supposed to vote on a new leader, nor Ali Khamenei himself, wanted Mojtaba to be elevated to supreme leader. So how did he get the job? We can give the IRGC credit for this one.

Assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was so opposed to his son taking power that he noted it in his will, experts told The (New York) Post.

“In Khamenei’s will, he explicitly asked Mojtaba not to be named as successor,” said Khosro Isfahani, a research director for the opposition group National Union for Democracy with ties to Iranian intelligence.

“Mojtaba is an impotent young cleric who has achieved nothing in terms of political life,” Isfahani said, explaining that the late Khamenei felt his son lacked the experience or capability to run Iran.

“All these years, he has been nothing without his father’s name,” he added.

And Mojtaba wasn’t even properly selected by Iran’s succession council — but the IRGC coerced the Assembly of Experts as it deliberated last week before finally forcing a vote.

Mojtaba didn’t even win a majority in that vote, Isfahani said, citing sources in Iran — but the IRGC made sure it appointed him anyway, reportedly prompting many clerics to boycott the meeting where the selection was announced.

“The Assembly of Experts that was supposed to pick the replacement of Khamenei didn’t vote for Mojtaba,” Isfahani said. “There was a lot of pushback against him, but under pressure from the IRGC, he was named as the successor.”

If the above is true, then two things have happened. First, if the clerics could not even get their choice of supreme leader installed, then they have been so badly decimated that Iran’s days as an Islamic theocracy has essentially ended. Second, if the IRGC chose Mojtaba and made sure that he was appointed, then the government is now a military dictatorship under the IRGC, and they chose a “supreme leader” that they believe they can easily control. Which means Mojtaba is as weak and “impotent” as his father claimed, or he is incapacitated to the point where the IRGC can simply rule in his name.

And President Trump is not impressed with the IRGC’s choice of leader, and he’s being quite open about it.

President Donald Trump said he is “not happy” with Iran’s choice of a new supreme leader but that early results from Operation Epic Fury have been “way beyond expectation.”

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been installed as the next supreme leader.

“I don’t believe he can live in peace,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

Overnight, President Trump told me he's "not happy" with the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader.

"I'm hearing they want to talk badly," Trump told me about Iranian leadership.

“It's possible, depends on what terms, possible, only possible," he added. pic.twitter.com/dR8mcs4zpu

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) March 10, 2026

Mojtaba has the approval of Vladimir Putin, for all the good that will do him.

Putin fired off a telegram to Khamenei — the son of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — on Monday, vowing the Kremlin would remain a “reliable partner” to Iran amid the ongoing war.

“At a time when Iran is opposing armed aggression, your tenure in this high post will undoubtedly require great courage and dedication,” Putin’s message said.

“I am sure that you will honorably continue your father’s work and unite the Iranian people.”

It will be kind of hard to work if Mojtaba is dead or bedridden. And his “tenure” could be quite short, considering he now has a very big target on his back. The IRGC are being targeted and struck consistently by the IDF, and it is questionable if they will continue to have operational capacity. President Trump said that he wants to help Iran choose who their next leader will be, and he might be getting that wish fulfilled sooner rather than later. Mojtaba Khamenei might be worse than his father, but he is also weaker – and he might not live long enough for his opinions to even matter.

Featured image: Mojtaba Khamenei in 2017 via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and modified