At a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on October 12, 2026, Trump said of Iran, “They got no leaders even. That's the problem. We might have gone too far with the leaders because we don't know who the hell we're dealing with anymore,” according to the Roll Call Factbase transcript. Moments later he added, “We're having a hard time figuring out who the hell to deal with, to be honest with you. I think we went too far, Bernie. Could have stopped it level one, level two. And level two and a half was probably going too far.” The Jerusalem Post reported the remarks as complicating efforts at talks.
The comments amount to the president describing his own war's decapitation strikes as having left the United States without a counterpart to negotiate with, months after he said he would have a say in choosing Iran's next leader (see Trump Says He 'Must Be Involved' in Choosing Iran's Next Supreme Leader, Calls Khamenei's Son 'Unacceptable').