Trump Calls Iran’s Written Statement From Leader ‘An Admission of Defeat’ as Strikes Continue

President Donald Trump seized on the absence of any video or audio from Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Friday, calling his written statement from Thursday an admission of defeat and evidence of physical incapacitation. Trump called Iranian leaders “deranged scumbags” and promised that strikes would intensify further, while Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth characterized Khamenei as wounded, likely disfigured, and in hiding underground. The assessment came as US and Israeli warplanes continued relentless bombing operations over Tehran and other Iranian targets throughout the day.
Mojtaba Khamenei assumed the supreme leadership after Israel’s killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had led Iran for 37 years. His Thursday statement was defiant in content, calling for national unity and pledging continued resistance. But the complete absence of any accompanying visual or audio element prompted US officials to draw pointed conclusions about his physical condition. Iranian state media showed other senior officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the judiciary chief, walking in Tehran’s streets and attending demonstrations, apparently to demonstrate governmental continuity.
The military campaign against Iran continued at extraordinary scale. Combined US and Israeli forces have struck more than 15,000 targets since the war began. Israel confirmed over 200 individual strikes in the most recent 24-hour period, targeting Iranian missile launch systems, weapons production facilities, and air defence infrastructure. Trump’s late Friday announcement described US Central Command obliterating every military facility on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil terminal, in one of the most powerful bombing raids in Middle Eastern history. He threatened to strike the island’s oil infrastructure next if Iran continued to attack Strait of Hormuz shipping.
The conflict’s devastating footprint across the region remained enormous. Lebanon has counted over 600 deaths and 800,000 displaced, with eight more killed in Sidon Friday. Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, injuring about 60. Saudi Arabia intercepted close to 50 Iranian drones. Qatar issued Doha evacuation orders before a missile interception. Two died in Oman in drone crashes. Dubai’s financial district sustained damage. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched new coordinated strikes on Israel with Hezbollah as part of al-Quds Day.
Iran has officially reported over 1,300 deaths. The United States has lost 13 service members, including six in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq. France lost a soldier to a pro-Iranian militia drone in Iraq. Tehran residents described a city of unceasing explosions, power cuts, fuel shortages, and trapped civilians. A retired professor begged for international intervention. A shopkeeper counted six explosions in one hour. European governments sought quiet diplomatic channels with Tehran for Strait of Hormuz shipping safety, while Trump’s threats about oil infrastructure strikes kept global energy markets in a state of sustained and deepening anxiety.