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Trump hints Iran's Khamenei ‘looking to flee’ amid protests: 'Getting very bad'
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be planning to leave the country amid protests, US President Donald Trump suggested during a news interview.
Amid a big escalation in ongoing protests in Iran, US President Donald Trump on Friday suggested that the country's 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be looking to flee.
In an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity, Trump was asked if he was aware of reports suggesting Khamenei would be going to Russia. In response, Trump said: “He's looking to go someplace, it's getting very bad."
Follow live updates on the situation in Iran here.
The President also said that the US would hit the Iranian authorities “very hard” if people protesting there are hurt. “Well, we're going to hit them hard. We're ready to do it. If they do that, we're going to hit them hard,” Trump said, after he suggested that people were being gunned down, prisoned, hung and killed.
Trump aide's ‘kill’ warning to Khamenei
Trump's remarks follow his aide and US senator Lindsey Graham's earlier warning that the President would “kill” Ayatollah Khamenei if the protestors in Iran were continued to be killed or harmed.
"To the people of Iran: We stand with you tonight… We stand for you taking back your country from the Ayatollah, a religious Nazi who kills you and terrorizes the world," Graham told Fox News' host Sean Hannity in an earlier interview.
"And to the Ayatollah: You need to understand, if you keep killing your people who are demanding a better life, Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you," he added.
What's happening in Iran?
An alleged battle cry by exiled prince Reza Pahlavi in Iran reportedly gave way to an even more massive protests in Iran on Thursday as people stormed outside homes, set buildings and statues on fire and chanted slogans against the Khamenei-led Iranian regime.
Pahlavi had thanked Trump for his criticism of the Iranian regime for backing the citizens of the country, and had called for the use of "all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen."
At least 42 people have been killed since protests broke out in the country on December 28. They have now spread to multiple cities, including Iran's capital Tehran. To quell the ongoing demonstrations, Iran has also restricted internet and phone access.
People of Iran are protesting against the country's dwindling economy as inflation officially rose to 42.5 per cent in December 2025, and the worsening a cost-of-living crisis. However, the Iranian state TV has attributed the demonstrations to “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel.
