Donald Trump responds in capitals to Irans | Political News

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran against following through with its threats to closely retaliate after the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”, Trump wrote shortly after midnight Sunday.

Iranian state news media confirmed Khamenei, 86, was killed in his downtown Tehran workplace compound after the U.S. and Israel launched a joint fight operation and struck Iran, killing a number of dozen, including more than 50 elementary college kids, top Iranian officers and speedy members of Khamenei’s household.

Iran launched retaliatory strikes at Israel and U.S. bases in the area in response. However, after confirming Khamenei’s death, the Iranian authorities vowed to launch “the most intense” operation in its “history” to avenge its chief.

“The most intense offensive operation in the history of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will begin in moments, targeting [Israel] and American terrorists’ bases,” Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

It got here after Iran’s Cabinet warned the U.S. and Israel that their “great crime will never go unanswered” after Khamenei’s death.

“To the noble and proud people of Iran: With the ultimate grief and sorrow this is to inform you that following the barbaric attack by the criminal governments of America and the evil Zionist regime, the true example of faith, jihad and resistance, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution Grand Ayatollah Khamenei achieved the blessing of martyrdom,” an Iranian state news anchor announced Sunday.

After Khamenei’s death was announced on national television, Iran’s government declared that there will be 40 days of public mourning, including a seven-day nationwide holiday, to commemorate him.

Once the news was confirmed, mourners were seen raising a black flag over the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, a pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims.

Khamenei, a hardline cleric, ruled over Iran for nearly four decades before his death. Nobody was named to be his successor, raising questions about the future of the Islamic Republic.

The U.S.-Israeli operation came amid Iranian nuclear negotiations and ongoing civil unrest in Iran, spurred by economic turmoil and growing anti-regime sentiment, in which thousands of anti-government protestors have been killed.

Trump warned the Iranian people—who were heard cheering from the rooftops after the ayatollah’s death was confirmed—in his Truth Social announcement about Khamenei’s death that this could be their only chance for regime change.

Trump is already facing fierce blowback for the move as lawmakers call for his impeachment and to vote on a war powers resolution after he effectively declared war without approval from Congress.

It comes less than a year after he claimed to have obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities in a June 2025 attack during the Israel-Iran war.

During his first time period, Trump also ordered a drone strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Qasem Soleimani, 62, in January 2020 close to Baghdad, Iraq.