Iran’s supreme leader blasted President Trump as a “criminal” on Saturday and blamed him for the brutal nationwide protests — one day after the president announced he had backed off attacking Tehran.
“We consider the US president a criminal for the casualties, damages, and the slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech, Iran International reported.
“Trump himself intervened in this unrest, made statements, encouraged the rioters, and said we will provide military support.”
His rhetoric comes just a day after Trump revealed that he decided against striking the Islamic Republic this week in part because Tehran said it had called off plans for a mass execution of protesters.
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump told reporters Friday that he “convinced himself” after initially vowing publicly to back protesters against the repressive regime.
On Jan. 2, he warned hat the US was “locked, loaded and ready to go.”
That decision reportedly came after lobbying by Israel and Saudi Arabia led to Trump’s pivot, according to reports.
More than 3,000 protesters were reportedly slaughtered across Iran this week as demonstrations against Khamenei’s theocratic regime and its failing economy spurned into chaos on the streets of Tehran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Much of the killing occurred during nationwide blackouts that shut down the internet across all of Iran.
Khamenei’s aggressive rhetoric continued the antagonizing tone Tehran has taken with Trump.
Iranian state television aired an image of the 2025 assassination attempt against the president in Butler, Pennsylvania, on a Jan. 14 broadcast with the caption “this time it will not miss the target.”
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