Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just delivered a scorching clapback to Donald Trump, and he didn’t hold back. After Trump bragged that US forces had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites in June, Khamenei basically told him to wake up. “Keep dreaming,” the Iranian leader said on his official website Monday, brushing off the former president’s explosive claims as nothing more than fantasy.
The drama started after Trump, during a fiery speech at Israel’s Knesset last week, declared that America had “dropped 14 bombs” on Iran’s nuclear facilities, boasting that the attacks “totally obliterated” them. He doubled down in a Fox News interview, gushing about what he called “the most beautiful military operation,” insisting the strikes had wiped out Iran’s nuclear capabilities and turned the country from “the bully of the Middle East” into a tamed state.
But Khamenei isn’t buying any of it. In his pointed message, he questioned Trump’s authority to tell other nations what they can or can’t have, saying it’s not for Washington to decide “what a country should or should not have if it possesses a nuclear industry.” Then he took it up a notch, labeling Trump’s comments “improper, wrong, and bullying.”
The US and Israel did launch strikes on Iran in mid-June but the truth appears far less dramatic than Trump’s Hollywood version. The Pentagon has since clarified that the strikes may have only delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions by “one or two years.” And according to leaked US intelligence reports, that setback might actually be just a few months.
So much for total destruction. The timing of the attacks couldn’t have been worse, either. They hit just two days before a fresh round of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran was supposed to kick off, talks that were instantly derailed once the bombs fell. Since then, Iran has refused to resume negotiations unless the US promises no further military action.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to strut about the operation like it was a blockbuster success, calling it “confirmed” and “beautiful.” But to Khamenei and much of the world, his claims look more like a delusion than a diplomatic triumph. The Iranian leader’s message was short, sharp, and dripping with sarcasm, the kind that cuts deep: “Keep dreaming.” Because if Trump really believes he wiped Iran’s nuclear program off the map, Tehran’s answer is clear, the only thing destroyed might be his credibility.
