Trump says, "It's time to look for new leadership in Iran," after Khamenei accuses the US of causing unrest.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, has ruled the country for decades. US President Donald Trump has declared that it is "time to look for new leadership in Iran" as anti-government demonstrations spread throughout the nation due to rising inflation, economic hardship, and growing public dissatisfaction with the government.

The US president said in an interview with Politico that they condemned Tehran's leadership, claiming that they use repression and violence to keep power. Trump stated, "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," according to Politico.

"The leadership should concentrate on running his country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing people by the thousands in order to keep control, even though that function is a very low level," he continued.

The US President went on to say that respect, not "fear and death," is the foundation of "leadership." Trump also attacked Khamenei directly, referring to him as "a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people," and he called Iran "the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership," according to Politico.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, blamed the US president for deaths and unrest in Iran in a series of hostile posts shared on X, which prompted Trump to make these comments.

Additionally, the head of the Islamic Republic called it "an appalling slander" that Trump misrepresented violent groups as representing the will of the Iranian people.

"The US President referred to the groups that committed murder, arson, and vandalism as 'the Iranian nation.'" He made a disgusting disparaging statement about Iranians. "We hold the US President accountable for this defamation," Khamenei declared.

"The US President promised the seditionists that he would back them militarily. To put it another way, the US President participated in the sedition. "These are illegal acts," he continued.

The Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) reports that Iran's nationwide protests have reached their twenty-first day, with severe security crackdowns and internet outages continuing throughout the nation. According to verified reports from HRANA, 4,382 cases are still being looked into, and 3,308 people have died during the protests thus far.

Authorities have confirmed that at least 24,266 people have been arrested, and 2,107 people have been reported with serious injuries thus far.

Khamenei, meanwhile, admitted for the first time that "several thousand people" had died as a result of the unrest.