Trump Calls for End to Khamenei’s Rule as Tensions Rise

US President Donald Trump has sharply escalated his rhetoric toward Iran’s leadership, calling for an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s decades-long rule as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to rise.

“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump said, despite signs that widespread protests demanding the end of the regime have begun to subside, The Caspian Post reports via foreign media.

The remarks follow weeks of unrest in Iran, during which thousands of protesters were killed, prompting the US president to repeatedly warn of possible military intervention.

Earlier this week, Trump urged Iranians to continue demonstrating and “take over institutions,” saying that “help is on its way.” However, a day later he appeared to reverse course, saying he had been informed that the killings had stopped.

“The best decision he ever made was not hanging more than 800 people two days ago,” Trump said when asked about the scale of a potential US military operation.

Trump’s comments came shortly after Khamenei’s X account published a series of hostile messages directed at the US president, accusing him of responsibility for violence and instability in Iran.

“We find the US president guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation,” Khamenei wrote.

In another post, he accused Trump of falsely portraying violent groups as representatives of the Iranian people, calling it “an appalling slander.”

After being briefed on the posts, Trump accused Iran’s leadership of governing through repression. “What he is guilty of, as the leader of a country, is the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before,” Trump said. “In order to keep the country functioning - even though that function is a very low level - the leadership should focus on running his country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing people by the thousands in order to keep control.”

“Leadership is about respect, not fear and death,” he added.

The exchange highlights increasingly confrontational rhetoric between Washington and Tehran at a volatile moment for the region, coming shortly after Khamenei claimed in a public address that “the Iranian nation has defeated America.”

Trump went further in his personal criticism of Iran’s supreme leader and political system.

“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump said. “His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”