President Donald Trump responded to a series of inflammatory social media posts by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday, after the Ayatollah blamed the United States for deadly protests that have broken out in the Middle Eastern country.
“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told Politico.
“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump added. “His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”
Khamenei’s regime is reeling from nationwide protests that cooled after the president said hundreds of executions slated to be carried out had been canceled.
“The best decision he ever made was not hanging more than 800 people two days ago,” he told the outlet.
In one post, the Iranian dictator said Trump is “guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation.”
He added in a separate post that Trump was supporting “seditionists” in the nation and the president was committing “criminal acts.”
“The US President sent a message to the seditionists saying he would support them and provide military support. In other words, the US President himself was involved in the sedition. These are criminal acts,” he wrote on X.
It’s unclear which “seditionists” Khamenei is referring to. He said in yet another post that Trump’s alleged interference was a “unique feature of this sedition.”
In response to the series of posts, Trump said, “What [Khamenei] 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… 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,” the president added.
The Islamic regime is highly unpopular due to the country’s withering economy and high inflation. The regime’s extremist roots have stirred some unrest for years but the economic variables have spurred on recent protests.
It’s unclear why the protests are winding down, but the Iranian Supreme Leader recently admitted that thousands of protesters had been killed. He blamed the United States for the deaths, and suggested internal “agents” committed some of the violence.
He’s adamant that America must “be held accountable,” for the unrest.
“Yes, we extinguished the fire of the sedition, but that isn’t enough. The US must be held accountable,” he wrote on X.
KHAMENEI CHASTISES TRUMP FOR WEIGHING IN ON IRAN PROTESTS: ‘WILL NOT BACK DOWN’
It’s not known if the U.S. is willing to intervene militarily in the nation again.
The Islamic regime has signaled that it won’t go down without violence.
