Trump told ABC News 'second and third place candidates are all dead' — US killed its own preferred post-Khamenei succession candidates in initial strikes; no viable successor pathway remains

Trump told ABC News’s Jon Karl (confirmed by Karl directly on X): ‘The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates. It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.’ This is direct admission that US planners had pre-identified preferred post-Khamenei successors — and killed them all in the initial strikes. US is now in position of having eliminated regime AND having no viable preferred successor. Lindsey Graham quote (‘It’s not our job to pick the next Iranian government’) contradicts obvious reality that regime change requires successor installation. CIA’s pre-war assessment (NEWS-127) that Khamenei’s death would produce IRGC hardliners is now irrelevant because there are no clear successors at all. Regime change strategy has failed on its own terms.