US President Donald Trump said Saturday he believes reports that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed are accurate, telling NBC News: “We feel that that is a correct story.”
In a phone interview with NBC News, Trump expressed confidence in the reports, though he stopped short of offering independent proof. “I’ve spoken to a lot of people beyond, and we feel certain, we feel, we feel that that is a correct story,” he said when asked about confirmation of Khamenei’s status.
Trump was blunt in his assessment of the Iranian leader. Khamenei, he said, had “killed many people” and “destroyed a country,” accusing Tehran’s leadership of decades of destabilizing actions across the region.
The president also suggested that the damage extended beyond one individual. “The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone,” Trump said, adding that “a large amount of leadership” in Iran had been killed, though he declined to provide further details.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reinforced the claim earlier Saturday, saying in a national address there were “many signs that even the tyrant Khamenei does not exist.”
The comments follow joint U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iranian targets after negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme stalled. Trump indicated that diplomacy had failed and that military pressure had reshaped the landscape.
In a separate interview with Axios, Trump said he has multiple paths forward if tensions escalate into full-scale war — including what he described as a long-term effort to “take over” Iran.
“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding,’” he said, referring to Iran’s nuclear programme.
Trump predicted it would take “several years” for Iran to recover from the recent strikes, which he said inflicted heavy damage on key facilities. He also claimed Iran had begun rebuilding some sites the U.S. struck last year — facilities he had previously described as having been “obliterated.”
Framing his approach in stark terms, Trump cast the choice as either a short, punishing campaign to reassert deterrence or a longer, more sweeping effort that would fundamentally alter Iran’s leadership structure.
Iranian authorities have not confirmed Khamenei’s death, and the situation remains fluid as regional tensions continue to mount.
