Pres. Trump Calmly Lays Out the Harsh Truth on Iran’s ‘Leadership’ After New Taunts by Khamenei – RedState
When it comes to authoritarian regimes like the one currently ruling Iran, any threat to their iron grip on power is met with brutal repression and violence, which we are sadly seeing unfold on the streets of Tehran and throughout this Middle Eastern country over the past three weeks. Although we do not yet know the exact number of deaths, estimates run into the thousands or more.
But in a new interview published Saturday by Politico, President Donald Trump points out that there is another regular tool used by despots like the Iranian mullahs. I’ll come back to that in a minute.
The president’s comments come after Iran reportedly called off a planned execution of hundreds of protesters and threatened an assassination attempt on the US president, as RedState wrote.
Close. Trump promised the United States would “come to their aid” if the Iranian deaths were committed.
READ MORE: Secret Service Now on Alert Over Iran Assassination Threat
Amid protests, Iran issues disturbing new threat against President Trump
On Saturday, Trump first raised the possibility of intervention by American forces in Iran, telling Politico that “the best decision he [Khamenei] never realized did not hang more than 800 people two days ago. »
The remarks about how authoritarians use the tactic of blatant lies and propaganda emerged as the interviewer read a series of pointed taunts aimed at Trump, via posts on Khamenei’s official X account.
One tried to blame Trump personally for the thousands of Iranian deaths since people began protesting after decades of repression:
We recognize the American president guilty of the losses, damage and slander he has inflicted on the Iranian nation.
– Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 17, 2026
Another article accused him of slandering the Iranian people by claiming that he was the one behind the violence and chaos:
The US president described the groups that committed acts of vandalism, arson and murder as “the Iranian nation.” He uttered a terrible slander against the Iranian people. We find the American president guilty of this slander.
– Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 17, 2026
Notice how whoever wrote this post dishonestly attempted to portray the killing and destruction as being caused by “groups.” As I pointed out earlier, this violence and chaos can be directly attributed to the brutal regime.
Trump, however, refused to respond in kind to the taunts. What he did was calmly speak the truth about what the mullahs’ “leadership” actually does, and that this is not how you run a country by any normal definition.
“Leadership is about respect, not fear and death,” the president said. ” Trump said, adding that “[t]This man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people. »
“His country is the worst place to live in the world because of poor leadership,” he said.
Speaking specifically about Khamenei, the president did not mince his words:
“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. In order to keep the country functioning – even if that function is at a very low level – leaders should focus on running their country well, as I do with the United States, and not killing thousands of people to maintain control.”
This is exactly how a US president should respond, instead of showing weakness like the Biden administration, which continued to coddle the regime with nuclear deals that did virtually nothing to end Iran’s ambitions. In this case, instead of lashing out with direct assassination threats and these new insults, Trump did the right thing and reminded the world what is really happening in Iran. Stay tuned, readers.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the warrior ethos is returning to the U.S. military.
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