President Donald Trump said Saturday that U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top leaders. “The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call, adding that “a large amount of leadership” in Iran was killed, though he declined to give further detail.
Shortly after the call, Trump posted on Truth Social saying Khamenei had been killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes. “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” he wrote, calling it justice for Iranians and for Americans and others harmed by Khamenei’s regime.
Iranian state television network Press TV confirmed Khamenei’s death on social media, and Iran’s official news agency IRNA later reported that Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani and IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour were killed in the airstrikes. The Israel Defense Forces had earlier said the two were among those killed.
Asked by NBC News who will lead Iran next, Trump said, “I don’t know, but at some point they’ll be calling me to ask who I’d like,” adding he was “only being a little sarcastic” when he said that. He repeatedly said the operation was going well: “We’re probably, in terms of zero-to-10, we’re close to the 10 spot, if not there… Tremendous damage has been inflicted. The leadership is gone. Large, large portions of the leadership.”
Monitoring the joint U.S.-Israel operations from his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump announced “major combat operations” in a video on Truth Social, saying the objective was to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” He warned the strikes could result in American casualties, including deaths, and urged Iranian citizens to seize control of their government: “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
CENTCOM said the strikes, part of Operation Epic Fury, began at 1:15 a.m. ET and targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command-and-control facilities, Iranian air defenses, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields. The strikes were launched from air, land and sea, and CENTCOM said the U.S. used “low-cost one-way attack drones for the first time in combat.”
Diplomatic talks this week over Iran’s missile and nuclear programs failed to yield an agreement. Most Republican members of Congress praised the strikes, while Democrats and a few Republicans — including Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — criticized Trump for acting without congressional authorization. Some lawmakers said they plan to force a war powers vote in the House next week.
Asked how he would know if the operation was finished or successful, Trump said, “I think it’s already a success. We’ve inflicted tremendous damage. It would take them years to rebuild.”