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A New York Times report reveals that after the 2025 US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the Trump administration considered former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad, known for his Holocaust denial and anti-Israel rhetoric, had been under surveillance and politically sidelined. The plan ultimately failed due to his injuries and disillusionment, highlighting the complexities of post-war power dynamics.
Picture this. There's a man who once told the world he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. He spent years under surveillance, stripped off political relevance, locked out of elections by the very regime he once led. And then one day America calls, not to arrest him or sanction him, but to offer a crown. What a plot twist. And this is not a Netflix series. This is what actually happened. According to a report by The New York Times, let's begin with how the plan was developed to begin with. When American and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran on the 28th of February, killing supreme leader Ali Khamenei, regime change wasn't a consequence. It was a goal.
Trump said openly that Iran's next leader should come from within. Look. And there'll also be a form of a very serious form of a regime change. Now, in all fairness, everybody's been killed from the regime. They really starting off. There's automatically a regime change. But we're dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid. Uh the people within know who they are. They're very respected. And maybe one of them will be exactly what we're looking for. But behind closed doors, the Americans and Israelis reportedly already had someone in mind.
His name is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He served as the governor of Iran's Ardabil province from 1993 to 1997. After that, he took up a lecturer job at Iran's University of Science and Technology. In 2003 then he became the mayor of Tehran. And in 2005 he ran for president and won. He is the same man who had once denied the Holocaust, the man who had repeatedly called America the great Satan, the man who championed Iran's nuclear program with religious fervor. That man was Washington and Tel Aviv's pick to lead a new Iran. To call this an unusual choice would be a vast understatement. So, how did this plan come together and how did it fall apart?
Let me break it down for you. The plan was originally developed by Israel. And it was reportedly multi-staged. Ahmadinejad had been consulted. He was on board. And on the very first day of the war, Israel struck his home in Tehran, not to kill him, but to free him from house arrest. Now, why was he under house arrest? I'll get to that in just a bit. But, the United States and Israel's bid to free him did not go as planned. Ahmadinejad was injured in the strike and after that near-death experience, he reportedly grew disillusioned. He hasn't been seen publicly since. His whereabouts are currently not known.
Now, here's what makes the story even more interesting. Ahmadinejad's own complicated history with the regime. He rose from obscurity when he ran for president in 2005 against the powerful Shia cleric Hashemi Rafsanjani. Almost nobody knew who he was. Mayor of Tehran, sure, but a presidential contender? He had barely 20% going into round one. And yet, he walked away with 62% of the vote. After the landslide victory, he became Iran's first non-clerical president in over two decades. And Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's former supreme leader, who appointed him, probably thought he had a loyal aid.
He did not. By 2011, the cracks were showing. Ahmadinejad fired a minister allied to Khamenei. Khamenei overruled him. Ahmadinejad, the sitting president, threw what can only be described as a political tantrum, refusing to show up for work for nearly 2 weeks. Then Khamenei blocked him from naming himself as oil minister. In 2012, Ahmadinejad was summoned before Iran's parliament, something that had never happened to a sitting president. The message was clear, "You're finished." By the time Hassan Rouhani replaced him in 2013, Ahmadinejad had gone from Iran's most powerful man to its most watched.
According to the Atlantic, government bodyguards were stationed near his home for surveillance. So, why did America think he would work? Trump reportedly had a template. He just pulled off the capture of Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro's interim replacement, Delcy Rodríguez, agreed to work with the White House. Trump apparently thought, "Why not replicate this in Iran?" It's a compelling theory. Except for one problem, Ahmadinejad isn't Rodríguez. He's a man with a deeply complicated past, a bruised ego, and a shrapnel to prove how badly the plan went wrong.
Maybe that's why Trump later changed the goal of the war. Change the war? Well, it's seems like that would be the best thing that could happen. For 47 years they've been talking and talking. In the meantime, we've lost a lot of lives while they talked. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders' death. They're all dead. Now, the United States and Israel went into this war with Iran not just with guns blazing, they had a plan. It was built on a man who called for Israel's destruction, backed by a bet that he'd somehow become their partner. This was
desperation dressed as foresight. Ahmadinejad is nowhere to be seen now, and the regime change playbook, so good on paper, is now a cautionary tale. The world moves fast. Power shifts, unexpected developments, changing alliances. Every day brings a new headline. But headlines are only the beginning, because behind every story, there is context. There are consequences, and there are questions worth asking. Find the answers. Understand the story. Take on the world. This is Hemant Saroya for Firstpost Vantage.
