Using some of the most inflammatory language ever directed at a foreign government by a sitting American president, Donald Trump referred to Iranian leaders as “deranged scumbags” on Friday and vowed that Iran would face devastating new strikes in the days ahead. The statement was published on social media even as US and Israeli jets were already carrying out coordinated bombing missions over the Iranian capital. Trump appeared to revel in the campaign, declaring it a great personal honor to be killing Iran’s leadership.
The war began when Israel struck and killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who had ruled Iran for 37 years, igniting a chain of events that has consumed the region. Tehran has since been subjected to near-continuous bombardment, with explosions reported around the clock by terrified residents. A retired university professor said the city had not had a single day without blasts since the conflict began, while power outages, rubble-strewn streets, and fuel shortages have compounded the suffering.
At a press briefing in Washington, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that combined US and Israeli forces had targeted more than 15,000 sites since the start of the war, striking over 1,000 per day. He added that Iran’s replacement supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had been wounded and was probably disfigured, based on his failure to appear in any video or audio communication. Israel’s military stated it had carried out over 200 individual strikes across Iran in a single day, targeting missile systems, air defenses, and weapons factories.
Meanwhile, the war spread with alarming speed through the wider region. Hezbollah continued its bombardment of northern Israel with rockets, injuring close to 60 people. Lebanon reported more than 600 deaths since the fighting resumed, with 800,000 people forced from their homes. In Gulf states, Iran launched drone and missile attacks, with Saudi Arabia neutralizing nearly 50 incoming drones and Oman reporting two fatalities when drones hit an industrial area.
Trump’s late statement that US forces had completely destroyed every military target on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export terminal, raised fresh fears about global energy markets. He threatened to target the island’s oil infrastructure if Iran continued to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway critical to global energy flow. With diplomats across Europe scrambling to open channels with Tehran and oil markets fluctuating wildly, the crisis had grown into one of the most destabilizing events the Middle East had witnessed in decades.
Trump Calls Iranian Regime Leaders ‘Scumbags’ While Pledging Wave of Fresh Military Strikes
