Ayatollah Khamenei responds to Donald Trump’s support for protesters: 'Manage your own country'

Amid the protests in Iran, which have also seen the deaths of around 192 people and thousands getting injured, the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has slammed US President Donald Trump for openly siding with the protestors, saying in a post on X, " If he is so competent, let him run his own country."

Khamenei also slammed Trump for the US' involvement in the 12-day war in June 2025. In another X post he said that Trump now claims he stands with the Iranian nation after he ordered the 12-day war which took "over a thousand Iranian" lives.

"Let everyone know that the Islamic Republic of Iran, established through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of honorable people, will not back down in the face of those who sow destruction," he said in another post.

In two more posts, he went on to assert that "Iranian people will not tolerate mercenaries from foreign powers" and that Iran now is better-equipped and armed than it was before the Islamic Revolution.

"Neither our spiritual strength nor our material and conventional weapons are comparable to what we had before," Khamenei said.

What Trump said on Iran protests

Trump offered support for the protesters, saying on social media that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous U.S. officials, said on Saturday night that Trump had been given military options for a strike on Iran, but hadn’t made a final decision.

The US State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”

Protests in Tehran and Mashhad

Online videos sent out of Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran's Punak neighborhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit mobile phones. Others banged metal while fireworks went off.

“The pattern of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of scattered, short-lived, and fluid gatherings, an approach shaped in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increased field pressure,” the Human Rights Activists News Agency said, as per the Associated Press. “Reports were received of surveillance drones flying overhead and movements by security forces around protest locations, indicating ongoing monitoring and security control.”

With AP inputs