Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a blistering verbal assault on the United States and President Donald Trump during a nationally televised speech, calling Trump a liar who brings shame on the American people, as the regime’s signature chant “Death to America” rang out repeatedly.
The remarks were aired Saturday on Iran’s state-run Channel 1 and featured a crowd erupting multiple times into chants of “Death to America,” “Death to England,” and “Death to Israel,” as Khamenei accused U.S. leaders of using military power to spread war.
“Some of the things the U.S. President said in his recent visit to the region are not even worthy of a response,” Khamenei declared, according to a MEMRI translation of the broadcast, before adding: “The level of the things he said is so low that it shames the speaker himself as well as the American people.”
The audience responded with applause and renewed anti-American chants.
Khamenei then directly attacked President Trump, who recently visited the Middle East, accusing him of lying about promoting peace through strength.
“Trump said that he wanted to use power for peace. He is lying,” Khamenei stated, as the crowd again chanted “Death to America” several times in unison.
Despite Iran’s record of fueling terrorism across the Middle East, Khamenei sought to deflect blame by accusing the U.S. of regional bloodshed, claiming, “[Trump] and other senior officials in the American administration have used power to perpetrate a massacre in Gaza, to stir up war wherever they could, and in order to support their mercenaries.”
Trump said he wants to use power for peace. He's lying.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 17, 2025
“When have they ever used power for peace?” he asked rhetorically, before pledging that Iran would escalate its own power in defiance of U.S. pressure: “We will increase our power and the power of our country every day — whether the enemies like it or not, inshallah [as Allah wills].”
Khamenei then called for the complete expulsion of the United States from the Middle East.
“By the efforts of the nations of the region, America should leave the region, and leave it will,” he insisted.
He also invoked extreme rhetoric against the State of Israel, calling it “the absolute source of corruption, war, and discord” in the region, and referred to it as a “lethal cancerous tumor” that “has to be uprooted, and it will be uprooted for certain.”
The regime’s crowds echoed his message with force. “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” were chanted a number of times during the broadcast, along with slogans denouncing “hypocrites,” “infidels,” and the U.S.-aligned governments.
Khamenei’s speech underscores the regime’s unchanged hostility toward the United States, even as the Trump administration attempts to explore the viability of a negotiated settlement with Tehran on nuclear and regional de-escalation efforts. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are urging the administration to demand that Iran fully relinquish its uranium enrichment capacity.
Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned of the threat posed by Khamenei and his regime to U.S. national security. Blaming the so-called appeasement strategy of the Biden administration, Sen. Cruz warned that the Iranian leader was actively attempting to “murder” President Trump.
“They have hired hitmen that are targeting former senior U.S. officials and the sitting President of the United States,” he stated. “These are not people who can be trusted, which is why the objective must be full dismantlement, it must be the centrifuges disassembled, destroyed, taken out.”
“As President Trump said recently, we can do that either nicely or not so nicely,” he added.
By reviving personal attacks on President Trump and amplifying public calls for America’s destruction, Iran’s leadership continues to signal that anti-Americanism remains central to its ideological platform.
With chants of “Death to America” broadcast nationwide and direct accusations leveled at the U.S. president, Khamenei’s latest tirade offers a stark reminder of the Iranian regime’s unwavering hostility and violent rhetoric—a message that resonates far beyond Tehran’s borders.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
