Trump says ‘a significant amount’ of Iran’s leadership has left after the US strikes on Israel
President Donald Trump on Saturday said US and Israeli strikes on Iran had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top leaders.
“The people who make all the decisions, most of them are gone,” Trump told NBC News on the phone, adding that “a significant amount of the leadership” in Iran had also been killed, though he declined to elaborate.
Shortly after the call, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Khamenei had been killed in US and Israeli strikes in Iran.
“Khamenei, one of the worst people in history, is dead,” he wrote. “This is not just justice for the people of Iran, but for all the great Americans, and those people from many countries around the world, who have been killed or maimed by Khamenei and his band of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Iran’s state media appeared to dispute Khamenei’s death, calling Trump’s unspecified claim “baseless,” and saying the American president “has a long history of spreading fake and fake news.” Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragachi said Khamenei is alive “as far as I know.”
NBC News asked Trump who will lead Iran next. Trump replied, “I don’t know, but sometimes they’ll call me and ask me who I like,” adding that he was “just being sarcastic when I say that.”
“But look, it’s going very well. It was, you know, we’re there, maybe from zero to 10. We’re close to the 10th place, if not there, and so far it’s going well, but we have a ways to go. A lot of damage done. The leadership is gone,” he said. “Big, big pieces of leadership.”
The president, who has been overseeing joint US-Israel operations from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, announced “major combat operations” in Iran in a video statement posted on his Truth Social account early Saturday.
“Our mission is to protect the American people by eliminating future threats from the government of Iran, a brutal group of hardened, fearsome individuals. Their dangerous activities endanger the United States, our military, our overseas bases and our allies around the world,” he said, while warning that these strikes could result in the death or injury of Americans.
He also urged the citizens of Iran to take over their government, saying, “It will be yours to take over. This will be your only chance for generations.”
The strikes, part of Operation Epic Fury, began at 1:15 a.m. ET, according to US Central Command. “Targets include command and control centers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian air defense forces, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields,” CENTCOM said.
Strikes were launched from the air, land and sea, it added, and the US also used “low-cost single-strike drones for the first time in a war.”
They came after talks over Iran’s nuclear weapons capability failed to produce a diplomatic deal this week.
Most members of Congress of Republicans praised the strikes, but Democrats and Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, both Kentucky Republicans, expressed outrage that Trump acted without Congressional approval. Some of these critical lawmakers said Saturday they plan to force the military power to a vote in the House next week.
When asked by NBC News how he will know the job is done and it’s been successful, Trump said, “I think it’s been successful. We’ve done a lot of damage. It could take years to rebuild.”
