U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice” but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over.

In an exclusive Reuters interview in the Oval Office, Trump said there is a chance Iran’s clerical government could collapse, blamed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the stalemate in negotiations with Russia over the war in Ukraine, and dismissed Republican criticism of a Justice Department probe of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, where thousands of people have been reported killed in a crackdown on the unrest against clerical rule. But he was reluctant on Wednesday to lend his full support to Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran, who was ousted from power in 1979.

“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump said. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet.

“I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”

Trump’s comments went further in questioning Pahlavi’s ability to lead Iran after saying last week that he had no plans to meet with him.

The U.S.-based Pahlavi, 65, has lived outside Iran since before his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and has become a prominent voice in the protests. Iran’s opposition is fragmented among rival groups and ideological factions – including the monarchists who back Pahlavi – and appears to have little organized presence inside the Islamic Republic.

Trump said it is possible the government in Tehran could fall due to the protests but that in truth “any regime can fail.”

“Whether or not it falls or not, it’s going to be an interesting period of time,” he said.

Trump, who is closing out the first year of his second term in office, sat behind his massive Resolute Desk and sipped a Diet Coke during the 30-minute interview. At one point, he held up a thick binder of papers he said contained his achievements since being sworn into office on January 20, 2025.

But he sought to manage expectations for Republicans in November’s congressional midterm elections, noting that the party in power frequently loses seats two years after a presidential election.

“When you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” he said. “But we’re going to try very hard to win the midterms.”

‘ZELENSKIY’ MAIN IMPEDIMENT TO REACHING DEAL

Trump, who has struggled throughout his presidency to end Russia’s war in Ukraine despite campaign boasts that he could end it in a day, said Zelenskiy is the main impediment to resolving the four-year-old war.

Trump has frequently criticized both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy but seemed more downbeat once again on the Ukrainian president.

Trump said Putin is “ready to make a deal.” Asked what the hold up is, Trump said simply: “Zelenskiy.”

“We have to get President Zelenskiy to go along with it,” he said.

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS ‘SHOULD BE LOYAL’

Trump dismissed Senate Republicans who have vowed to block his Fed nominees over concerns that Trump’s Justice Department is interfering with the central bank’s traditional independence with its probe into Powell.

“I don’t care. There’s nothing to say. They should be loyal,” he said of his party’s lawmakers.

Trump also rejected criticism from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon that Trump’s meddling into the Fed could spike inflation.

“I don’t care what he says,” Trump said.

Trump is to meet on Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the White House, their first in-person meeting since Trump directed the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and seized control of the country earlier this month.

“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump said of Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”

Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize last year and dedicated it to Trump. She has offered to give him her prize, but the Nobel Committee said the peace prize cannot be transferred.

He praised the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, who was vice president to Maduro when he was ousted. Trump said he had a “fascinating talk” with Rodriguez earlier on Wednesday and “she’s been very good to deal with.”

Trump frequently extolled the strength of the U.S. economy during the interview despite lingering worries among Americans about prices. He said he will carry that message with him next week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he will stress “how great our economy is, how strong our job numbers are, how good we’re doing.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters that Trump will have bilateral meetings with the leaders of Switzerland, Poland and Egypt while at the Davos event.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he plans to speak with billionaire Elon Musk about restoring internet in Iran, where authorities have blacked out services for four days amid ongoing anti-government protests.

“He’s very good at that kind of thing, he’s got a very good company,” Trump told reporters in response to a question about whether he would engage with Musk’s SpaceX company, which offers a satellite internet service called Starlink that has been used in Iran, Reuters reported.

Musk and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday amid the most expansive protests against the country’s clerical establishment since 2022.

Musk and Trump have held an on-again, off-again relationship after the billionaire helped fund Trump’s winning presidential campaign and subsequently orchestrated massive cuts to the federal government.

The pair had a public falling-out last year as Musk opposed Trump’s signature tax bill, but the entrepreneur appears to have rekindled his relationship with the Trump administration. Musk and Trump were seen dining together at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this month, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is scheduled to visit a SpaceX facility in Texas on Monday.

Musk has supported providing Starlink to Iranians to help them circumvent the government’s restrictions, including amid previous protests in 2022. That year, the Biden White House engaged with Musk to set up Starlink in Iran after the country was engulfed by protests following the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

The Starlink satellite service has been used in other regions marked by unrest or conflict such as Ukraine, where Musk in 2022 ordered a shutdown of Starlink during a pivotal Ukrainian offensive, Reuters reported.

Iran’s current protests began on December 28 in response to soaring prices, before turning against the clerical rulers who have governed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Hundreds of people have been killed since then, rights groups estimate. U.S.-based organization HRANA said it has verified the deaths of 490 protesters and 48 security personnel, with more than 10,600 people arrested in two weeks of unrest. Iran has not given an official toll and Reuters was unable to independently verify the tolls.

Israel is on high alert for the possibility of any U.S. intervention in Iran as authorities there confront the biggest anti-government protests in years, Reuters reported citing three Israeli sources with knowledge of the matter.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in recent days and warned Iran’s rulers against using force against demonstrators. On Saturday, Trump said the U.S. stands “ready to help”, Reuters reported.

The sources, who were present for Israeli security consultations over the weekend, did not elaborate on what Israel’s high-alert footing meant in practice. Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June, in which the U.S. joined Israel in launching airstrikes.

In a phone call on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention in Iran, according to an Israeli source who was present for the conversation. A U.S. official confirmed the two men spoke but did not say what topics they discussed.

Israel has not signalled a desire to intervene in Iran as protests grip the country, with tensions between the two arch-foes high over Israeli concerns about Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

In an interview with the Economist published on Friday, Netanyahu said there would be horrible consequences for Iran if it were to attack Israel. Alluding to the protests, he said: “Everything else, I think we should see what is happening inside Iran.”