“We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders' death. They're all dead.”

Multiple speeches during the Iran war characterizing the impact of opening strikes

Iran's government never stopped functioning, and replaced its dead supreme leader within eight days. While the February 28, 2026 strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran designated his son Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader on March 8, and President Masoud Pezeshkian survived and remained in office throughout the war, publicly addressing reporters as early as March 7.

Nor did the leadership die at once. On the day of the opening strikes Trump himself said most of Iran's decision-makers were gone "not only from the one attack, but from two others," and by March 11 he said the U.S. had "knocked out twice their leadership, and now they have a new group coming up." Senior figures were still being killed in separate strikes weeks later: in a report dated March 18, Iran confirmed that National Security chief Ali Larijani and Basij head Gholam Reza Soleimani had been killed in an Israeli strike.

The leadership that survived fought on. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, stayed in office and was still addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September 2026, nearly seven months into the war.