WSJ : Trump Advisers Urge Him to Find Iran Exit Ramp, Fearing Political Backlash

Trump Advisers Urge Him to Find Iran Exit Ramp, Fearing Political Backlash
The president told reporters on Monday that he thought the war in Iran would be over ‘very soon’

President Trump said he was eyeing a quick end to the war in Iran, characterizing the military mission as mostly achieved.
Some of President Trump’s advisers urged an exit plan amid spiking oil prices and concerns about political backlash.
President Trump has made conflicting statements on the war, and some administration officials said it was unlikely the U.S. could easily withdraw from the conflict.

WASHINGTON—President Trump said he was eyeing a quick end to the war in Iran, as some of his advisers privately urged him to look for an exit plan amid spiking oil prices and concerns that a lengthy conflict could spark political backlash.

Speaking to reporters in Florida on Monday, Trump characterized the military mission as mostly having achieved its goals. “We’re way ahead of schedule,” he said, adding he thought it would be over “very soon.”

He didn’t provide a clear timeline for ending the Iran operation. When asked about helping the Iranian people who have risen up against the regime, Trump sounded ready for a quick conclusion rather than to continue to push for leadership change.

“We want a system that can lead to many years of peace, and if we can’t have that, we might as well get it over with right now,” Trump said. He said he was disappointed in the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader, a move that signals that Tehran won’t back down.

Some Trump administration officials said as long as Tehran continued to attack regional countries and Israel still wanted to strike Iranian targets, it was unlikely the U.S. could easily withdraw from the war. Trump, in his Monday remarks, said he was prepared to continue targeting Iran if the country continued blocking the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump won’t stop fighting until he can claim a satisfactory victory, a senior administration official said, especially when the U.S. has a military advantage. Trump has at times been surprised that Tehran won’t cave despite the unrelenting joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign, according to people familiar with his thinking.

“This story is full of crap from anonymous sources who, I can guarantee, are not in the room with President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The president’s top aides are focused 24/7 on ensuring Operation Epic Fury continues to be a tremendous success, and the end of these operations will ultimately be determined by the commander in chief.”

Trump has made conflicting statements about the war. Last week, he said he was seeking Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and declined to rule out sending ground troops to the country. On Monday, he told the New York Post he was “nowhere near” issuing such an order.

After saying on Monday that the war might be over soon, the president added: “We could go further, and we’re going to go further.” Trump has hinted in public, and told aides in private, that he would back the killing of the younger Khamenei if he proves unwilling to cede to U.S. demands, current and former U.S. officials said.

His comments came as oil prices surged—then fell—adding to already existing concern among Trump’s allies over the economic costs and political fallout of the war.

Some of Trump’s advisers in recent days have encouraged him to articulate a plan to extract the U.S. from the war and make the case that the military had largely achieved its objectives, according to people familiar with the matter. While many in the president’s conservative base still support the initial operation, some of the president’s advisers have privately expressed concerns that a longer war could deplete that support.

Trump has been briefed on some polling about the war, the people said. Public polls released in recent days show that most Americans oppose the war. “The vast majority of Americans support ending the threat posed by the Iranian regime and support killing terrorists, and that’s what President Trump is going to accomplish,” Leavitt said.

Some of Trump’s advisers watched with alarm as oil prices shot to over $100 a barrel. They have also fielded calls about the midterm elections from some nervous Republicans, according to people familiar with the matter.

“When the price of gas and oil rise, so does everything else. Given affordability was already an issue, this leads to real challenges,” said Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Trump.

Trump’s team concluded in recent days that they needed a more aggressive communications plan to sell the public on the war as many consumers deal with rising gas prices, the people said.

Trump said Monday the U.S. would remove “oil-related sanctions” on some countries to reduce prices, though he didn’t name the nations that might see the measures lifted. He said the U.S. would provide “risk insurance” to tankers operating in the region, adding that the U.S. Navy and its partners would escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “if it’s needed.”

Trump also said he didn’t “know enough” about a Tomahawk missile strike that killed 175 people at a school in Iran, after initially blaming Tehran for the bombing. “I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation,” he said Monday. He added that he was “willing to live” with a probe about who was responsible for the attack.

U.S. military investigators initially think that American forces likely were responsible, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

The U.S. has hit thousands of Iranian targets, according to U.S. officials, ranging from government buildings to military bases to missile sites. The Trump administration has said its main objective is to prevent Iran from threatening the U.S. or its regional allies by destroying elements of its nuclear work and ballistic missile program.

Tehran has retaliated by targeting U.S. bases, as well as several countries in the Middle East, with missiles and drones, striking international airports and oil refineries. Seven U.S. servicemembers have been killed and eight others have been seriously wounded since fighting began on Feb. 28, according to U.S. Central Command.

More than 36,000 Americans have returned to the U.S. from the region, the State Department announced Monday.

WSJ : CATL Reports Earnings Beat Despite Cooling EV Demand, Higher Metal Prices

CATL Reports Earnings Beat Despite Cooling EV Demand, Higher Metal Prices
The Chinese company is the largest manufacturer of EV batteries globally

  • Contemporary Amperex Technology reported stronger-than-expected net profit in Q4 and 2025, despite higher lithium prices and cooling EV demand in China.
  • Net profit for 2025 rose to 72.20 billion yuan from 50.74 billion yuan in 2024, driven by strong overseas sales and energy-storage demand.
  • The company, which holds a 51% share of China’s EV-battery industry, was added to the Hang Seng Index in March.

Contemporary Amperex Technology, the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery maker, beat profit expectations for 2025 even as it grappled with higher lithium prices and cooling EV demand in China.

Shares of Fujian-based CATL popped Tuesday morning after the results, rising 5.7% in Shenzhen and 9.2% in Hong Kong.

The Tesla supplier’s earnings surged in the final quarter of 2025, bringing full-year profit growth to 42% and blowing past consensus views. Annual revenue rose 17%.

Analysts had anticipated a strong set of results, as the company’s supply chain strategy helps it weather higher prices of lithium and other materials used in battery production.

“Despite softer EV demand in China and higher metal prices since late last year, the company’s outlook remains positive,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note.

The brokerage believes CATL can drive revenue growth of at least 30% this year, in line with higher capital expenditure guidance and large pipeline of capacity under construction.

In December, the company said that its battery plant in Hungary was ready to launch, and that initial annual capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours was already fully booked.

Even if headwinds persist, CATL’s results suggest that it entered 2026 on solid ground.

In the fourth quarter last year, net profit rose to 23.17 billion yuan, or about $3.35 billion, from 14.74 billion yuan a year earlier, it said late Monday. Revenue rose 37% to 140.63 billion yuan.

Annual net profit came in at 72.20 billion yuan on revenue of 423.70 billion yuan. Visible Alpha consensus estimate had projected yearly profit of 68.43 billion yuan and revenue of 430.45 billion.

CATL’s major revenue driver, its EV battery system, delivered a 25% rise in revenue in 2025. Robust sales overseas and growing demand for energy-storage systems offset cooling demand for EVs in its home market.

The company, which counts Volkswagen, BMW and Geely Automobile among its client base, said that it is paying out an annual dividend of 21.78 yuan per 10 shares and a special dividend of 47.79 yuan per 10 shares for 2025.

CATL reported a gross profit margin of 26.27% in 2025, compared with 24.44% a year earlier, partly thanks to improvements in battery materials and recycling.

WSJ : Japan’s Growth Beats Estimates in Boost for BOJ Hikes

Japan’s Growth Beats Estimates in Boost for BOJ Hikes
Real gross domestic product rose 1.3% in annualized terms in the fourth quarter, compared with the preliminary estimate of 0.2% growth

  • Japan’s economy grew 1.3% annualized in Q4 2025, driven by capital spending, strengthening the case for interest-rate hikes.
  • The Bank of Japan faces a policy dilemma as Middle East tensions and surging oil prices create uncertainty despite domestic wage and price growth.
  • The Nikkei Stock Average plunged amid fears that higher energy costs will hurt corporate profits and derail the nation’s growth.

TOKYO—Japan’s economy ended 2025 on firmer footing than initially anticipated, bolstering the case for more interest-rate hikes.

Stronger-than-expected capital spending drove real gross domestic product up 1.3% in annualized terms in the fourth quarter, compared with the preliminary estimate of 0.2% growth. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, the economy grew 0.3%.

The revised data likely support the Bank of Japan’s stance of continuing to tighten policy settings, though the uncertainty triggered by tensions in the Middle East adds an element of unpredictability.

Oil prices surged as the conflict began, rippling out across equities markets and other commodities. Japan relies heavily on the Gulf for its energy needs, leaving its economy vulnerable to energy disruptions.

BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda said last week that the central bank will monitor the impact of the situation in the Middle East, and continue to raise rates as needed.

On the domestic front, Ueda highlighted that a virtuous cycle of synchronized wage and price growth has begun to take hold.

The revised data released Tuesday showed firmness in demand in Japan’s economy through the fourth quarter.

Capital expenditure increased 1.3% from the previous quarter, outperforming the initial estimate of a 0.2% rise. Private consumption growth was revised up to 0.3% from 0.1%.

However, the central bank now faces a classic policy dilemma: The threat geopolitics poses to the economic recovery favors loose monetary conditions, but if the BOJ waits too long to hike, it risks falling behind the curve in maintaining price stability.

Japan has strategic oil reserves it can deploy to help mitigate the impact of an energy shock, but that buffer is limited and a prolonged conflict would be a serious problem for the economy.

The Nikkei Stock Average plunged again Monday after sliding more than 5% last week, reflecting fears that higher energy costs will hurt corporate profits and derail the nation’s growth. Oil shocks would also hit household disposable income by reducing real wages adjusted for inflation.

Crude prices have been volatile since last week, trading near $120 a barrel at one point but slipping below $100 after President Trump said overnight that the Iran conflict could be over soon, and the Group of Seven forum of advanced economies said its members are ready to take necessary measures, including the release of energy stockpiles.

“At $85 per barrel, the Japanese economy is likely to avoid a severe downturn,” said Mizuho Securities economist Yusuke Matsuo. But if oil prices stay at around $120 a barrel, that could create enough pressure to offset the effects of government inflation-relief measures, he said.

Moody’s Analytics economist Stefan Angrick expects the Bank of Japan to stand pat at its next meeting on March 18-19 but raise its policy rate one more time in the summer.

FT : Mongolia presses Rio Tinto to rewrite ‘unfair’ terms of $18bn Oyu Tolgoi mi

Mongolia presses Rio Tinto to rewrite ‘unfair’ terms of $18bn Oyu Tolgoi mine
Talks over copper project would be latest renegotiation as global sector grapples with wave of resource nationalism

Mongolia is seeking to renegotiate the “unfair” commercial terms of Rio Tinto’s giant $18bn Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, as rising prices for the metal and a recent electoral shift contribute to a growing political impetus to change the terms of the 17-year-old deal.

Top Mongolian officials including Prime Minister Gombojavyn Zandanshatar, who took office last summer, are meeting this week in Ulan Bator with Rio executives including head of copper Katie Jackson to discuss the terms of the Oyu Tolgoi agreement.

The prime minister warned Rio executives in a meeting on Monday that the current deal was “unfair” and that “this whole situation feels like the Mongolian people and the parliament are being deceived”, according to video footage seen by the FT.

A rising tide of resource nationalism has led several of the world’s biggest mining projects to be renegotiated as governments seek more favourable terms.

Freeport-McMoRan last month received a permit extension for its Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia following years of talks under a deal in which the government will increase its stake in the project.

Under the terms of the original Oyu Tolgoi agreement struck in 2009, the government of Mongolia owns 34 per cent of the copper and gold mine, held through state-owned mining company Erdenes Mongol Group.

To fund its share of the capital expenditure needed to develop the mine, the government took out a multibillion-dollar loan from Rio Tinto at a floating interest rate that is currently more than 11 per cent. Repeated cost overruns and delays at the project have extended the timeline for when the government will start to receive dividends from 2017 to around 2037.

Among the government’s key demands are for Rio to reduce the interest rate on the loan and cut the annual management fee it charges for the project, according to Davaadalai Batsuuri, chief executive of Erdenes Mongol Group, who has been participating in the negotiations.

“Mongolia is not getting the dividends from the project, and it is not fair. That is the underlying point,” he told the FT.

The Mongolian proposal would reduce the interest rate on the loan to less than 6 per cent, on par with the interest rate for Mongolia’s other sovereign lending, and phase out Rio’s management fee, which Davaadalai estimates to be roughly $150mn-$200mn a year.

Davaadalai warned that if the negotiations with Rio go poorly the government could increase the rate of export tax the company pays on copper exports — currently around 5 per cent.

Oyu Tolgoi is Rio’s biggest copper mine under development and will be the world’s fourth largest by 2030, producing about 500,000 tonnes of the metal a year.

“We are engaged in active negotiations with the Mongolian government,” Rio said in a statement. “These discussions reflect our continued commitment to working together to achieve Oyu Tolgoi’s full potential for the benefit of all partners.”

The mine is currently producing copper from its open pit while building out its underground operations. Rio Tinto has been forced to redesign its underground expansion after failing to strike a licensing agreement with Entrée Resources, which holds the mining licence for a neighbouring area despite years of discussions.

Rio has asked for the government’s help to secure an agreement with Entrée, whose licence covers part of the underground area that was originally proposed. The government last year established a temporary oversight committee to examine the issue.

Separately, Rio Tinto is facing a tax probe in Mongolia, where authorities allege it has underpaid about $450mn largely because of accounting differences related to depreciation during the 2021 and 2022 tax years. The tax dispute is working its way through the courts. 

Four years ago, Rio agreed to waive about $2.4bn of the government’s loan as both sides vowed to “reset” the relationship.

However, that truce has not held and the prime minister has made the renegotiation a top priority.

Upcoming elections next year, along with near-record prices for copper and gold, have also raised the stakes.

“The public are going to ask what the government has done. If there is no visible outcome, there will be some protests,” said Davaadalai.

>>> US After Hours Summary: ZVRA +20.6%, LFMD +9%, RPAY +5.9% higher on earnings

After Hours Summary: ZVRA +20.6%, LFMD +9%, RPAY +5.9% higher on earnings; HOG +1.3% on insider purchases; YEXT -4.4%, CASY -2.2%, VOYG -2.1%, MTN -1.4% lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: ZVRA +20.6%, LFMD +9%, RPAY +5.9%, SEPN +2%, HPE +0.7%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: VRTX +7.1% (data from a pre-specified week 36 interim analysis of the ongoing Phase 3 RAINIER trial of povetacicept), JOBY +5.3% (to begin U.S. operations in 2026 under White House Air Taxi program), NRC +2.7% (authorizes new $60 mln share repurchase program), KRP +1.7% (new $100 mln common unit repurchase program), HNRG +1.5% (names new COO), HOG +1.3% (discloses two insider buys), ARDX +0.5% (publication of data from its IBS-C clinical development program), TNXP +0.4% (presented data on TONMYATM in treating patients with fibromyalgia), PATH +0.3% (achieves AIUC-1 certification)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: RAIL -21.1%, YALA -10% (also authorizes new $150 mln share repurchase program) AMPY -9.7% (also provides update on strategic initiatives), YEXT -4.4%, CASY -2.2%, VOYG -2.1%, MTN -1.4%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: MLYS -4.2% (FDA accepts NDA for lorundrostat), DNTH -3.3% (stock offering), DEC -3.3% (files mixed securities shelf offering; also stock offering by selling shareholder), VNOM -1.4% (files mixed securities shelf offering), WOLF -1% (stock offering by selling shareholders), XENE -0.7% (stock offering), LMT -0.3% (awarded $700.4 mln modification to Navy contract), ELV -0.1% (co and Myomo (MYO) agree to contract for multi-state network participation), CWEN -0.1% (seeks approval to simplify public share class structure)

FT : Donald Trump says Iran war will end ‘very soon’

Donald Trump says Iran war will end ‘very soon’
Oil tumbles as president seeks to calm market but gives conflicting signals on plans to end conflict

Donald Trump said the US war against Iran would end “very soon” as he sought to calm chaotic trading in the oil market that had sent prices spiralling to their highest in four years and threatened the global economy.

Speaking from his Doral resort near Miami, the US president described the war the US has been waging against Iran since February 28 as a “little excursion” that had succeeded “much faster than we thought” but declined to specify when it would end.

His comments on Monday afternoon came after oil prices rose about 30 per cent to almost $120 a barrel at the start of trading in Asia, roiling equity markets and triggering alarm about the impact of the war on the global economy.

The historic surge forced G7 finance ministers to hold an emergency meeting to consider steps to stabilise energy markets.

“We’re looking to keep the oil prices down,” Trump said. “They went artificially up because of this excursion.”

But even as his remarks helped ease oil prices back below $90, the president also sent conflicting signals about when precisely the US would stop attacking Iran and under what conditions.

In a speech to Republican lawmakers at Doral, he said US forces would not “relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”, and that “we’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough”.

Asked at a subsequent news conference whether he intended the war to end this week, Trump said: “No, but soon. Very soon.”

“We could call it a tremendous success now and leave here . . . or we could go further and we’re going to go further,” he later added. If Iran “starts up again, they’ll be hit even harder”.

The president was forced to respond to the jump in oil prices when markets opened in Asia on Monday morning, sparking alarm among officials in his administration, who rushed to evaluate policy options to temper panicky trading.

One person familiar with the discussion on Monday morning said officials confronted “panic” in the markets with “all options . . . on the table”.

As Brent crude prices soared to a peak of just over $119, G7 finance ministers held an emergency meeting where they issued a declaration saying they “stand ready” to release emergency stocks of oil, diesel and petrol.


US officials signalled they believed a joint release in the range of 300mn to 400mn barrels would be appropriate, matching or surpassing 300mn jointly released by the US and International Energy Agency in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Robert Yawger, analyst at Mizuho, said: “That seems to be the number that Trump and the administration are putting out that they’d be open minded to adding to the global market from member states’ strategic reserves — so the market leaned on that headline.”

He said the oil futures curve, which showed prices for delivery several months in the future were at low levels, suggested “nobody was convinced this crisis is going to last for ever”.

Analysts said Trump’s statement later on Monday afternoon hinting that war could end soon had helped calm markets.

“He knew he needed to ease nerves,” said Michael Alfaro, chief investment officer of Gallo Partners, an energy and industrials hedge fund.

Alfaro said Trump’s comment that the war was proceeding faster than the US had anticipated was read as “a signal that he may be trying to wind down the conflict as soon as possible”.

Following the US president’s remarks on Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said: “Iran will determine the end of the war.”

IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini said the force would “not allow one litre of oil to be exported from the region” to hostile parties and their partners until further notice, given the continuation of US and Israeli strikes.

Trump responded later on Truth Social, vowing to hit Iran “TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far” if it “does anything” to stop the flow of oil through the Strait.

The US military on Monday said it had struck more than 5,000 targets in Iran over 10 days of war including ballistic missile and drone sites, Iranian navy vessels and buildings belonging to the IRGC.

Trump last week said he would accept nothing less than “unconditional surrender” from Tehran. The Iranian leadership over the weekend selected as the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in what was widely viewed as a defiant response to the US president’s demands.

Asked whether the younger, more hardline Khamenei — whose selection Trump called “unacceptable” — has a target on his back, Trump declined to say “because that would be inappropriate”.

Trump also on Monday backed away from his previous pledge to help the Iranian people, saying they are “amazing” and he would “love to help them, but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped. And right now they’re in a system that only allows failure.”

FT : The rise of Mojtaba Khamenei

The rise of Mojtaba Khamenei
Iran’s new supreme leader has been shaped by decades-long ties with the powerful and hardline Revolutionary Guards

Hours after slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba was chosen to succeed his father, Iranian state media lit up with rarely seen footage of the new supreme leader during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

In one scene, a teenage Mojtaba walks among fellow volunteer fighters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, dressed in khaki military uniform with his head wrapped in a red band bearing a Shia slogan. In another, he sits among combatants, quietly clearing the barrel of his rifle.

At a time when the Islamic republic is once again fighting for its survival, the footage sent a clear message about the martial environment and life-long ties to the elite Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful institution, that have shaped the rise of the country’s new ultimate decision maker.

Iranians have for years speculated that Mojtaba was being prepared for the country’s highest office, with the backing of institutions including the guards. But his elevation — days after much of his family was killed in a US-Israeli bombing raid — signalled that, far from a break with the past, the regime sees doubling down on his father’s hardline project and hostility to the west as essential to its survival.

Mojtaba “got close to the guards, and he’s certainly their choice”, said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the Crisis Group think-tank. “Can you imagine Mojtaba, whose father, mother, wife, sister, daughter and niece have been killed by the US and Israel, would subjugate his country to [Donald] Trump’s whims?”

His selection “is a big middle finger to Trump . . . a sneering act of defiance meant to show that pressure, threats and isolation have changed nothing”, Vaez added.

Mojtaba’s first challenge will be to survive the war with Israel threatening to assassinate whoever Khamenei’s replacement is. Trump described Mojtaba as a “lightweight” and “unacceptable” figure, warning that whoever took over would not last long.

The 56-year-old has not been seen in public since the start of the war. State television indicated that he has become disabled, without clarifying when this occurred or whether it was linked to the current conflict.

A relative of the new supreme leader, speaking to the FT, said Mojtaba’s priority will be continuing the Islamic republic’s security policies, which have included pursuing a ballistic missile programme and cultivating regional anti-Israel militant groups.

“Iran under his leadership will be the same Iran under his father, which means strong opposition to US bullying and Israeli aggressions,” the relative said. Iran “will become stronger to defend the country against future aggressions”.

The relative added that Mojtaba had maintained informal ties to the guards over the past two decades, sometimes even serving as an informal go-between with the elite force and his father.

Little else is known about Mojtaba’s past. The second son among six children, he was born before the 1979 Islamic revolution in the northeastern city of Mashhad, and began studying religious doctrine under his father.

He later pursued further training with senior clerics in the holy city of Qom, following in the footsteps of the elder Khamenei, who became supreme leader in 1989. For two decades, starting in 2004, Mojtaba taught advanced religious studies there.

The first public image of Mojtaba emerged during the unrest that followed the 2009 presidential election. Reformist politicians accused the reclusive son of playing a central behind-the-scenes role, alongside the guards, to push for re-election of hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, an accusation denied by hardliners.

And his voice has been heard publicly only once, in a brief video released in 2024 in which he announced the suspension of his religious studies in Qom.

Domestic media said on Monday that he was fluent in Arabic and English. Mojtaba’s relative said he had played a leading role in shaping the Islamic republic’s technology policies.

Under the constitution, the selection of a supreme leader is the responsibility of the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body tasked with appointing a figure who is a qualified Islamic jurist whom they deem to possess the piety, political and social insight to lead.

Those inside the political establishment say Mojtaba emerged as the strongest candidate to succeed his father in part after several potential rivals were sidelined or died.

Former president Ebrahim Raisi, once viewed as a leading contender, was killed in a helicopter crash about two years ago. Other mooted contenders like former centrist president Hassan Rouhani and Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were not allowed to join the Assembly of Experts.

Mojtaba’s candidacy had previously faced resistance from those who feared it being seen as a return to the hereditary systems of government that preceded the Islamic republic. While experts thought this could work against him, the war made him a logical choice as the regime battled for survival and sought to send a message of defiance to the US president, analysts say.

“It signals not renewal, but the grim continuity of a system that now openly sheds even the pretence of republicanism,” Vaez said. “It’s a choice that, if you look at it from the perspective of a regime under siege, it makes sense. But it’s not a choice that will help in the long run.”

Others have said it is too soon to rule out that he could prove more ambitious, suggesting — despite little evidence — that he could seek to emulate the example of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who embarked on social and economic reforms while doubling down on the autocratic nature of the state.

“We still need to wait and hear his first public speech and how he is going to proceed before deciding in which direction he is going to move,” said Mohammad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar, a reformist politician.

“What is certain is that Iran’s new leader has a deep understanding of resistance against the US and Israel, and he is fully aware of the behind-the-scenes workings of the country’s institutions, from the Revolutionary Guards to the government and the judiciary.”

Mojtaba can for now expect the support of these disparate institutions, Ellie Geranmayeh at the European Council on Foreign Relations said. But, if he and the regime survive the war, and he finds himself presiding over a system in decay and an increasingly angry populace, the fact that the son has replaced the father may only add fuel to the frustration.

“Mojtaba for now — and, more importantly, the team around him running the wartime operations — will not be challenged,” Geranmayeh said. “But if he makes it out alive from this war, that’s when the internal pushback will start.”

FT : Trump sons back launch of new military drone company

Trump sons back launch of new military drone company
Company will go public through merger with Nasdaq-listed operator of Florida golf courses

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr are backing a new tactical drone company that does business with the Pentagon, marking the latest foray into the military-industrial complex by the US president’s eldest sons.

Autonomous Power Corporation, which “builds and scales autonomous drone systems for military and commercial use in high-risk environments”, is set to merge with Nasdaq-listed golf course group Aureus Greenway Holdings. Investors in the new venture, which will trade as Powerus if the tie-up goes through, include Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, as well as Unusual Machines, another drone company in which Trump Jr has held a stake.

Powerus already lists the US Department of Defense as a client. Unusual Machines last October won a Pentagon contract to manufacture 3,500 drone motors and other drone parts.

The size of the investment into Powerus by Donald Trump’s sons was not disclosed. It will be channelled through a special purpose vehicle called American Venture Partners, which is also backed by Dominari Holdings, a securities and fintech group headquartered in New York’s Trump Tower.

The Trump brothers have rapidly expanded their business empire since their father regained the presidency, wading into cryptocurrencies and other sectors that have benefited from policies pushed by the new administration.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr are also involved with blank-cheque investment group New America Acquisition I Corp, which said in filings last year that it would seek to buy a US company “well-positioned to benefit from federal or state-level incentives, such as grants, tax credits, government contracts or preferential procurement programs”.

Seoul-based private equity group Korea Climate & Governance Improvement Fund was set to purchase $50mn of Powerus stock by April 6, AGH said.

“Drone technology is increasingly central to modern security and infrastructure, and America must lead in this critical area,” Dominari president Kyle Wool said in a statement on Monday.

Matthew Saker, interim chief executive of golf club operator AGH, said: “The need for and uses of autonomous technologies, such as those produced by Powerus, are front-page news given developments in the Middle East and elsewhere.”

Shares in AGH rose 6 per cent on Monday to $5.20. The company runs Kissimmee Bay Country Club and Remington Golf Club, both of which are in Florida.

The Trump family’s latest investment in a drone manufacturer comes just over a week after the US and Israel launched an attack on Iran that has rattled global financial markets and sent energy prices surging.

Shares in Unusual Machines have gained more than 20 per cent since the war began.

Unusual Machines brought Trump Jr on as an adviser in November 2024. The FT last year reported that shares in the company almost tripled in price in the weeks leading up to its disclosure of the move.

Shares in Dominari Holdings rose by 580 per cent in the six weeks before its February 11 filing revealing that Trump Jr and Eric Trump had joined its advisory board.

American Ventures has also thrown its weight behind crypto billionaire Justin Sun’s digital asset platform Tron and combat sports company Mixed Martial Arts Group.