U.S. President Donald Trump declared that killing Iran’s top leaders, including the recently deceased Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was a “great honor.” In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday, Trump stated that the United States would completely destroy Iran’s “terrorist regime” militarily and economically. He claimed Iran’s navy and air force had been effectively wiped out, along with its missiles and drones, and said its leaders had been “erased from the face of the earth.”

Trump criticized a New York Times report suggesting the U.S. was losing the war, asserting that America possessed unmatched military power, limitless ammunition, and sufficient time to defeat Iran. He described Iran’s leadership as responsible for killing innocent people worldwide for 47 years and said that as the 47th U.S. president, he was now eliminating them, calling it a great honor.

According to the report, Ayatollah Khamenei was killed on February 28, the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. On March 8, Iran’s Assembly of Experts elected Mojtaba Khamenei, aged 56, as the new Supreme Leader.