President Trump laid out his goals for the Iran War.
The military achieved number one.
And Donald Trump ending the Ayatollah led to one huge choice that will change everything.
As Swamp Digest reports:
President Trump announced that on the first day of America and Israel’s regime change war in Iran, Israeli forces killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The CIA deployed sophisticated technology to track Khamenei for weeks.
And the agency determined that Khamenei was meeting with senior regime leadership outside of his secure, deep, underground bunker.
General David Petraeus was one of the architects of the nation-building strategy from the Iraq War.
Patraeus also served as Barack Obama’s CIA Director.
In 2025, Petraeus attacked Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, firing woke military officers as “concerning.”
Six days before the war with Iran began, Petraeus predicted it wouldn’t result in regime change.
But even Patraeus had to applaud the planning and skill of the Trump administration in the operation that killed Khamenei, calling the strikes “superb” and a “historical achievement.”
Patraeus also was dumbfounded that Khamenei and his leadership team would meet out in the open, knowing Trump was threatening military action and his post orders to strike Iran with Operation: Midnight Hammer and to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meant Trump wasn’t bluffing.
“It is just a reflection of stunning arrogance on the part of the Iranian leadership. I think they really thought they were in the clear for another period of daylight because we didn’t go in the normal time —almost all of our operations begin in the early hours of the morning,” Patraeus told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“And in this case, they apparently came out and were even gathering and meeting, discussing various topics, and that’s how the Israeli precise intelligence enabled their superb military strikes — along with our military actions — to achieve this really extraordinary and truly historical achievement,” Patraeus continued.
But Petraeus said there was one question looming over this war.
“Who will follow,” Patraeus rhetorically asked.
Before the war, the CIA assessed that taking out Khamenei would lead to hardline elements in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps taking control.
Patraeus said it was likely the case that someone equally bad would seize power.
The problem is that the people who usually prevail in situations like this are not the Democrats on a white horse here — you know, the George Washington figures,” Patraeus continued. “These are the guys with the most guns and who are the most ruthless.”
Reports out of Iran indicate that Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei are running the regime on an emergency basis.
They are likely to be much more careful with their movements.
