Trump calls Iran leaders ‘deranged scumbags’ as Middle East violence spirals

Trump calls Iran leaders ‘deranged scumbags’ as Middle East violence spirals

As the conflict in the Middle East intensifies, Donald Trump declared that Iran would be struck “very hard” in the coming days. He condemned the regime’s leaders, labeling them “deranged scumbags,” and claimed it was a “great honor” to target them, echoing the sentiment of a 47-year campaign against their influence. Tehran residents reported relentless attacks, with explosions becoming a constant backdrop to daily life.

Israeli and U.S. aircraft conducted successive strikes on the Iranian capital and other locations on Friday. One of the blasts hit near a square close to Tehran University, where crowds rallied behind the regime. The area, filled with government buildings, saw immediate chaos. Video from Tasnim news agency captured grey smoke rising as protesters chanted “Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!”

“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today … They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”

Across the region, the violence escalated. Israeli strikes in Lebanon displaced 800,000 people, while Hezbollah and Iran launched new missile and drone attacks on Israeli targets. Meanwhile, Iranian forces targeted civilian infrastructure in Gulf states, adding to the widespread destruction. In Iraq, six U.S. servicemen died in a mid-air refuelling accident involving a tanker plane, and a French soldier was killed by a pro-Iranian militia group.

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Iranian leaders were “desperate and hiding, they’ve gone underground.” He suggested that Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, had been “wounded and likely disfigured” after a defiant statement from Thursday. Hegseth mocked the written declaration, saying, “He called for unity … apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity.”

Tehran residents described a relentless cycle of explosions since the war began following an Israeli strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s leader for 37 years. “The buildings are shaking … There’s rubble everywhere and people are still risking their lives to go to work,” said a 66-year-old retired professor. “Please stop this. I am begging the world to act now before the entire city is destroyed. I can’t leave the city, and have sick family members. Even those who want to flee, can’t. They are not giving us enough petrol to even drive far enough. We are trapped.”

A shopkeeper in the city’s center recounted six explosions in the past hour. “We’ve taped the windows with newspapers. I am hardly even sleeping. They have bombed all night. I am scared to step out. These are some powerful bombs because I don’t even hear the drones any more. That’s how continuous today’s explosions have been. It’s cold and the power keeps going off and on. We won’t have electricity soon I fear,” she said.

Israel announced further strikes on Iranian infrastructure, stating its air force had hit over 200 targets in 24 hours. Hegseth confirmed more than 15,000 “enemy targets” had been destroyed since the war began, exceeding 1,000 per day. Despite Thursday’s sharp declines, stock markets rebounded as oil prices dipped slightly. European nations, including France, reportedly engaged in talks with Tehran to secure safe passage for their vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively disrupted by attacking shipping routes.