President Trump’s self-deification has reached a new level. On March 5, during an interview with Axios, he saidMojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s assassinatedSupreme Leader Ali Khamenei,will not be his father’s successor.

“The president compared the situation to Venezuela, saying he was personally involved in leadership decisions there and intends to be similarly engaged with Iran,”Newsweekreported.

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“They are wasting their time,”Trump saidof Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts, a deliberative body responsible for appointing and supervising the Supreme Leader. “Khamenei’s son is a nobody. I should be involved in the appointment process, just like Delcy Rodriguez was in Venezuela. Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”

Trump said this after telling the American people his administration is not interested in regime change. In late January, as the US and Israel instigated riots and acts of terrorism inside Iran, Trump instructed Iranians to take over the government. He declared “help is on the way.”

While a president publicly declaring he will personally install the leader of a foreign country is rare, the act of regime change by the United States is not. Since the 19th century, the US has been actively involved in the overthrow of numerous foreign governments, both openly and secretly. Following World War II, the US intervened, either directly or covertly, in the internal affairs of numerous foreign governments, including: China, Italy, Greece, the Philippines, South Korea, Albania, Germany, Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia, Guyana, Vietnam, Cambodia, Zaire, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Chile, East Timor, Nicaragua, Grenada, Libya, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Haiti, Yugoslavia, and others.

“The men who run the American Empire are not easily embarrassed,” writesWilliam Blum.

However, in the case of Trump, it is not simply the absence of embarrassment, but rather the enlargement of his elephantine ego. Trump is not unlike the Roman emperor Caligula in that he prioritizes his personal interests (andgrift behavior) over governance and the wishes of the American people. In addition, similar to Caligula, Trump has surrounded himself with obsequious sycophants.

In Venezuela, Trump likes to think he pickedDelcy Rodríguezto lead the country after the US abductedNicolás Maduro.Rodríguez is cooperating with the United States for a very simple reason—she does not want her country destroyed and, in addition, she believes, probably naively, that cooperation with Trump will translate into corporate investment and the lifting of economic sanctions.As of this writing, the only sanctions lifted are related to Venezuela’s oil industry. In addition, Rodríguez has allowed foreign corporations toexploitthe country’s gold and rare earth minerals. Transnational petroleum corporations, however, are “risk-averse” and unlikely to invest in Venezuela’s broken oil infrastructure and work around its political instability.

Source: Global Research