US President Donald Trump publicly demanded an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s decades-long rule on Saturday, intensifying a bitter verbal spat between Washington and Tehran after Iran’s top leader accused Trump of inciting violent unrest within the nation.
In response to a string of derogatory remarks from Khamenei’s X account blaming the US president for bloodshed connected to recent rallies, Trump told Politico, “It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran.”
Even though widespread protests in Iran have mostly abated after weeks of turbulence, the words represented Trump’s most direct push for regime change language to date. Trump warned of potential US military action earlier this month after thousands of demonstrators were slain over the last three weeks, according to human rights organizations.
In his posts, Khamenei blamed Trump for the violence and unrest. Khamenei added, “We find the US president guilty due to the casualties, damages, and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation.” In a different statement, he called Trump’s misleading portrayal of terrorist groups as Iranian people’s representatives “an appalling slander.” Khamenei claimed that organizations connected to both Israel and the United States were responsible for the unrest, which resulted in extensive damage and fatalities. He called their activities “crimes” and a “grave slander” against Iran, claiming that they intentionally caused havoc, lit fires, and damaged public property.
Economic difficulties caused the protests to start on December 28, 2025, and they grew into large-scale demonstrations demanding the abolition of clerical rule in the Islamic Republic. Trump has made other threats to step in, such as saying he would take “very strong action” if Iran put demonstrators to death. However, he congratulated Tehran’s officials in a social media post on Friday, stating that the mass hangings had been canceled. Iran declared that “no plan to hang people” existed.
Trump accused Iran’s government of using terror and widespread brutality to rule after reading the posts, according to Politico.
As a nation’s leader, he is accountable for the total devastation of the nation and the unprecedented use of violence, Trump claimed. “The leadership should concentrate on running the country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing thousands of people to stay in control in order to keep the country functioning – even at a very low level.”
Respect, not fear and death, is the essence of leadership, he continued. Trump went one step farther and declared Iran’s supreme leader unfit to lead. Trump declared, “The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people.” “Because of bad leadership, his country is the worst place in the world to live.”
