Pete Hegseth tore into Iran’s new ‘rat’ supreme leader and dared the ‘disfigured’ Ayatollah to appear on camera.
The Secretary of War gave his first assessment during Friday’s Pentagon press conference of the new Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s health after he was named the country’s leader following his father’s death.
‘Iran’s leadership is in no better shape,’ Hegseth claimed. ‘Desperate and hiding they have gone underground, cowering. That’s what rats do.’
‘We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,’ Hegseth told reporters at a briefing.
Reports emerged this week stating the strike that killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also injured his son who was installed as his successor.
President Trump told G7 leaders in a meeting held virtually on Wednesday that Ayatollah Khamenei ‘is not in good shape,’ according to reports.
‘Nobody knows who is the leader, so there is no one that can announce surrender,’ Trump said, according to officials briefed on the call.
The President has said that the conflict will result in Iran’s surrender – whether they explicitly state that they have lost or not.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that new Iran supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared on camera since taking over command because he is ‘disfigured’ from the same blast that killed his father
Demonstrators display posters of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left) and his successor and son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (right) outside a mosque in Turkey on March 13, 2026
Supporters have held up images of the new Iranian Supreme Leader, but he has not appeared publicly or on camera since being installed as the new Ayatollah after he was hit in the same strike that took out his 86-year-old father
Trump told Fox News on Thursday when asked about Mojtaba Khamenei: ‘I think he probably is [alive].’
‘I think he is damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form, you know,’ he added.
Hegseth dared Khamenei to appear on camera after his first public message since the conflict began nearly two weeks ago was written and read out on Iranian state media.
‘He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice. And there was no video. It was a written statement,’ Hegseth lamented.
‘Iran has plenty of cameras and voice recorders,’ he said at Friday’s briefing. ‘Why a written statement? I think you know why.’
Hegseth insisted of the 56-year-old Ayatollah: ‘He is scared. He is injured. He is on the run.’
The Pentagon chief concluded that Iran doesn’t know who’s in charge after their 86-year-old former supreme leader was killed by joint Israeli-US strikes that kicked off the war on February 28, 2026.
The Ayatollah’s statement was read out on his behalf by a news anchor on state TV on Thursday.
It comes amid rumors that the new leader is in a coma, lost his leg or even dead.
And his absence only fueled such rumors that he’s either too ill to record a message or died in an airstrike.
The statement claims Iran would not refrain from avenging the ‘blood of its martyrs.’
