'Easy target': Trump threatens Iran's supreme leader, says he's safe 'for now'
"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He is an easy target, but is safe there."
"We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now," the president said on June 17. "But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin." There was no immediate response from the Iranian government.
More: Iran's nuclear sites before and after Israeli attacks: See updated maps, satellite images
A short while later, Trump upped the ante with a two-word post: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"
USA TODAY reported June 16 that Trump had warned Israel off a plan to kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate sway over Iran.
Trump's statement came as new explosions were heard in the Iranian capital and Vice President JD Vance suggested the U.S. military could get involved if Iran's clerical leadership refuses to give up its nuclear enrichment program.
Here's what to know about Trump, the Israel-Iran conflict, and what might come next.
Iranian security forces on Tuesday arrested a "terrorist team" linked to Israel with explosives in a town southwest of the capital Tehran, Iranian state media reported on June 17.
Israel's National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi offered the clearest signal yet about the goals and resolve behind Israel's air campaign, telling local Channel 12 News the military is going after the hardest target in Iran: The Fordo nuclear enrichment plant.
'This operation will not conclude without a strike on the Fordo nuclear facility,' Hanegbi said.
Fordo, built into a mountain to withstand airstrikes, has 1,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Hanegbi made clear Israel's war would only end after Fordo was hit.
Analysts say that would take a U.S. 'bunker buster' bomb, dropped from an American plane. But Hanegbi said Israel was ready to go it alone.
'We're not trying to convince the Americans to join,' he said. 'The prime minister has a close and intimate dialogue with President Trump, but we never received any promise the U.S. would take part.'
Hanegbi added the plan is 'entirely blue and white' - fully Israeli, without external military support.
The president has issued a blizzard of statements over less than 48 hours pointing to negotiations with Iran, a desire for Tehran's "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER" and a focus on protecting U.S. troops in the Middle East who might be targets for Iran or its proxy militias.
The Iran conflict was two clashes in one. While neither Israel, nor the U.S., nor Europe wants to see a nuclear-armed Tehran, Trump until late last week was forcefully pushing negotations to end Iran's uranium enrichment program.
Israel, meanwhile, launched its massive June 13 attack on nuclear and military facilities. Soon the president was warning the Iranian people of destruction and threatening Iran's supreme leader.
So what does Trump want? A negotiated solution? Regime change? A military endgame − possibly including American forces?
More: Iran: 11 facts about a country rarely visited by Westerners
"I think we can take his word for his word, but I'm not going to speculate on, in a large sense, what that would mean," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. "That is up to the president. He is the singular guiding hand about what will be occurring from this point forward − as he has been."
Earlier in the day as members of Trump's MAGA base urged the administration to stay out of the war, Vice President JD Vance said the answer isn't complicated.
Trump, he said, "has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years...The president has made clear that Iran cannot have uranium enrichment," Vance wrote on X. "And he said repeatedly that this would happen one of two ways − the easy way or the 'other' way."
Not long before Israel launched a stunning surprise attack on Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, President Donald Trump was still holding out hope Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would accept a U.S. proposal to end its uranium enrichment program.
"As long as I think there is an agreement, I don't want them going in, because I think that would blow it. Might help it, actually. But it also could blow it," Trump told reporters on June 12.
When the Israeli airstrikes first started punching holes in apartment houses and secret bases, U.S. officials were quick to say Washington wasn't involved.
Since then, over five days of a bitter air war, Trump has warmed to Israel's campaign, bragging more than once that Israeli pilots were flying American-made jets, dropping American-made bombs.
'We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,' he wrote on Truth Social on June 17. 'Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn't compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured 'stuff.''
'Nobody does it better than the good ol' USA,' he added.
President Trump's threat to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei isn't an idle boast. In January 2020, Trump ordered a fatal drone strike on Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Baghdad.
But it's Israel that Iran truly fears, when it comes to targeted killings. Israel killed numerous top military leaders and nuclear scientists in its first wave of attacks on Iran on June 13 and has since killed other military leaders.
More: MTG, Tucker Carlson urge Trump to stay out of Iran, exposing a MAGA rift
A clandestine Israeli assassination program has taken the lives of several scientists who were key to the Iranian nuclear program over the last decade. And Israel killed Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024 with a bomb hidden in his official guest house.
Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last year, as well as Nasrallah's successor. Scores of Hezbollah operatives were killed and maimed by exploding pagers engineered by Israel. Hezbollah had been Iran's strongest proxy in the region.
More: Trump indicates US involved in Israeli attacks on Iran in social media post
With Iran's clerical rulers suffering their worst security breach since taking power in 1979, the country's cyber security command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported June 17.
The threats go both ways. In November 2024, federal prosecutors charged an Iranian man with plotting Trump's assassination in revenge for Soleimani's killing.
President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu June 17, according to a White House official, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and Iran.
The White House hasn't released details of the conversation between Trump and Netanyahu.
Trump also met with his top national security advisers in the White House Situation Room June 17 to discuss the war between Israel and Iran, having flown home from the G7 summit in Canada to focus on the conflict in the Middle East.
The United States is temporarily closing its embassy in Jerusalem as tensions mount in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The embassy will close June 18 through June 20, with staff directed to 'shelter in place in and near their residences until further notice,' according to a security alert from the embassy.
The embassy statement cites 'the security situation and ongoing conflict.'
Vice President JD Vance raised the possiblity that Trump could order U.S. military action if Iran doesn't give up its nuclear enrichment program.
In a lengthy post on X, Vance made the case that Trump has been consistent in his opposition to Iran attaining a nuclear weapon, and that the president has offered them a peaceful alternative.
More: Pentagon sends warplanes, aircraft carrier to Middle East as Iran-Israel war rages
Throughout the Israel-Iran shooting war, Trump "has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military's focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens," Vance said. "He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment."
"That decision ultimately belongs to the president," he added.
In a nod to rising anti-war sentiment from Republicans in Congress, Vance said that "people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy. But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue."
Air raid sirens wailed again in Tel Aviv shortly after 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. Eastern) as Israel and Iran continued their retaliatory strikes. The Israeli military said another volley of missiles was en route from Iran.
Less than 30 minutes later, an all-clear message went out telling residents it was safe to leave their shelters. It was unclear if any of the missiles evaded air defenses.
An Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear complex at Natanz directly hit the underground uranium enrichment plant there, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said, after initially reporting it had been hit only indirectly.
Since Israel's launched wide-ranging attacks on Iran on June 13, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been providing updates on the damage to nuclear sites − although it has not been able to carry out inspections.
The IAEA had previously said an above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz was destroyed but the larger underground plant was not directly hit, although IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said June 16 its centrifuges had very likely been badly damaged by a strike on the plant's power supply.
On June 17 the agency revised its estimate, saying satellite imagery pointed to "direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at Natanz."
Early on June 17, the president denied he had reached out to Tehran seeking an end to the five-day Iran-Israel air war, after earlier suggesting he was working toward a broad Iran nuclear deal.
"I have not reached out to Iran for 'Peace Talks' in any way, shape, or form," he wrote on Truth Social early on June 17. "If they want to talk, they know how to reach me. They should have taken the deal that was on the table - Would have saved a lot of lives!!!"
Trump did encourage his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Vice President JD Vance to offer to meet with the Iranians, a source familiar with those discussions said.
A U.S. official separately said Witkoff sought to determine whether there was any room for diplomacy with the Iranians before Trump's statement on June 17 suggesting the time for talking was over.
Trump urged residents of Tehran to evacuate the night of June 16 and left the Group of Seven summitt in Alberta, Canada, a day early to focus on the Israel-Iran conflict.
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters Trump was returning to Washington to work on a ceasefire, but Trump refuted that.
"Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said he wants something that's "better than a ceasefire," without elaborating.
"IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" he said in a post on Truth Social.
"And it's painful for both parties," he said "but I'd say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately before it's too late."
More: Pentagon pizza account reported high activity before Israel's attack on Iran
Staff and family members at the American Embassy in Jerusalem were sheltering in place before dawn on June 17.
More: 'They'd like to talk': Trump says Iran looking to de-escalate with Israel
"The U.S. Embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel," the mission said in a security alert, noting that Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and Israel's seaports were closed.
Trump's administration warned Americans not to travel to Israel the day before, as Iran retaliated for last week's strikes.
The Chinese embassy in Israel urged its citizens to leave the country via land border crossings as soon as possible.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on June 16 the U.S. still wants a nuclear deal with Iran.
'Of course,' Hegseth said on 'Jesse Watters Primetime" on Fox. 'We are postured defensively in the region to be strong in pursuit of a peace deal. And we certainly hope that's what happens here.'
Several members of Congress said they will cosponsor measures to block the United States from going to war with Iran.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a self-described "constitutional conservative" Republican from Kentucky, announced a measure "to prohibit our involvement," and invited all members of Congress to cosponsor it.
More: Israel threatens 'Tehran will burn' after Iran revenge strikes
"This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution," Massie posted.
Progressive Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York jumped at the invitation.
"No war in Iran," Khanna posted. "It's time for every member to go on record. Are you with the neocons who led us into Iraq or do you stand with the American people?"
An hour later, Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he had "introduced legislation to stop Trump from... leading us into an illegal war with Iran."
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said earlier on June 16 he would introduce a war powers resolution in the Senate.
"If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X, imploring Trump to intervene with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sources told Reuters that Tehran had asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press President Donald Trump to use his influence on Netanyahu and push for an immediate ceasefire. In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources.
Israel struck first on June 13. In a surprise attack, it killed top military commanders and nuclear scientists. Airstrikes on Iran have also taken at least two of Iran's uranium enrichments sites offline.
Iran has retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles that have pierced Israel's defenses, striking residential neighborhoods.
Netanyahu told troops at an air base that Israel was on its way to achieving its two main aims: wiping out Iran's nuclear program and destroying its missiles.
By midday on June 16, officials from each country said 224 Iranians and 24 Israelis had been killed in the conflict.
Trump was at the G7 Summit in Canada when he sent his stark warning to Iran. Not long after, the White House abruptly said he would return to Washington early to focus on the deepening conflict.
At a photo with world leaders, Trump told reporters: "I have to be back early."
"You probably see what I see, and I have to be back as soon as I can," the president said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also left Canada for Washington.
Contributing: Ben Adler, USA TODAY; Reuters.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Easy target': Trump threatens Iran's supreme leader
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