President Donald Trump issued a warning to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an interview Wednesday, saying the regime’s top cleric “should be very worried” as tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News, Trump was asked directly about Khamenei amid growing unrest inside Iran and increased U.S. military pressure in the region.
“I would say he should be very worried, yeah. He should be,” Trump said.
The comments come as Iran’s clerical regime intensifies its crackdown on nationwide protests. Trump reaffirmed U.S. support for Iranian protesters and credited his administration’s military actions with weakening Tehran’s grip.
“We have had their back,” Trump said. “And look, that country’s a mess right now because of us.”
Trump pointed to the U.S. strike last June that targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities — an operation known as “Operation Midnight Hammer” — saying it eliminated a major threat not only to Israel, but to the entire Middle East.
“We went in, we wiped out their nuclear,” Trump said. “If I didn’t take out their nuclear, think of it, if we didn’t take out that nuclear, we wouldn’t have peace in the Middle East.”
Trump also warned Iran against attempting to rebuild its nuclear program, claiming U.S. intelligence detected efforts to return to the damaged sites and consider new locations.
“They tried to go back to the site. They weren’t even able to get near it. There was total obliteration,” he said. “They were thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country. We found out about it.”
He added, “I said, you do that, ‘We’re going to do very bad things to you,’” he said.
The U.S. has significantly increased its military presence near Iran in recent weeks, including deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, additional fighter jets, and cargo aircraft to the U.S. Central Command region.
Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program have been renewed for Friday after appearing on the verge of collapse, as several Arab and Muslim leaders urged the Trump administration on Wednesday not to cancel the talks, Axios reported.
The talks will take place in Oman, a location pushed by Tehran, after the U.S. initially resisted changing plans to meet in Istanbul. The back-and-forth fueled regional concern that Trump could instead shift toward military action if diplomacy collapsed, the report said.
Leaders from at least nine Middle Eastern countries contacted the White House, warning that canceling the talks could sharply escalate tensions and destabilize the region, according to Axios.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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