President Donald Trump praised Iran's current leadership in a statement Wednesday evening, describing them as smart, far less extreme than their predecessors, and genuinely patriotic. Trump added: 'They are good.' The remarks, circulated on social media, continue a recent pattern of warmer assessments by the president regarding Tehran's leadership.
President Donald Trump released a statement Wednesday evening from an undisclosed platform (timestamp 20:03 Jerusalem) lauding Iran's current leaders: 'The new leaders of Iran are smart, very smart. They are much less extreme. I think they really love their country. They are good.' The remark adds a fresh characterization — 'less extreme' and 'love their country' — to a thread that has escalated markedly over the past 24 hours.
Earlier Wednesday evening, at 20:02 Jerusalem, The Zioneer reported Trump saying Iran should retain some ballistic missiles and calling a request to continue bombing 'stupid.' That bulletin was published in the same thread as the current update. On Tuesday (June 16, multiple versions all timestamped 13:08 Jerusalem), the thread opened with Trump acknowledging regime change was effectively happening, calling the Iranian leadership 'very rational.' Subsequent versions on Tuesday described the leadership as 'rational, strong, and smart' (per i24NEWS), and included Trump telling the Qatari emir that regime change was underway and criticizing the Beirut strike. The source quality across Tuesday's items evolved from unsourced Israeli media reports (versions 1-3) to an on-record attribution to Amichai Stein / i24NEWS (version 5). Wednesday's statements (the ballistic missiles remark and the current praise) are attributed but the exact platform remains unspecified.
As The Zioneer reported on June 11, Trump predicted a regime change in Iran, and on June 10 he said he believed Iranians want a deal — earlier in the thread. The president's public stance has shifted from military posture ('very hard today') and warnings, to describing the current leadership in uniformly positive terms.
It remains unclear whether the 20:03 statement was made in an interview, a social media post, or a written release. No additional details on US policy toward Iran accompanied the praise, and the president's intended audience or diplomatic context for the remark has not been specified.
6 developments
- DevelopingTrump: 'I believe there will be a regime change in Iran'
- ConfirmedTrump: Iran played 'very stupid' US presidents; deflects Turkey-Israel conflict question
- DevelopingTrump: Iran behaves properly, agreed not to build nuclear weapons
- DevelopingTrump tells NY Post 'things are going great' amid Iran tensions
Source and signal
- Internal intake