Iran’s ayatollah: Trump shows ‘real face of America’

Iran’s ayatollah says President Trump’s rise has exposed “corruption in the U.S. ruling system” and shown the “the real face of America.”

Speaking to a gathering of military leaders in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Trump’s election validated Iran’s longstanding animosity toward the U.S. and urged Iranians to “respond” to Trump’s rhetoric later this week, when the country celebrates the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution on Friday.

“We are thankful to [Trump] for making our life easy as he showed the real face of America,” Khamenei said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

{mosads}”During his election campaign and after that, he confirmed what we have been saying for more than 30 years about the political, economic, moral and social corruption in the U.S. ruling system,” he continued.

The Trump administration imposed a new round of sanctions against dozens of Iranian entities on Friday, after the country launched a new ballistic missile test.

As a presidential candidate, Trump frequently criticized an international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program and has vowed to pull the U.S. out of the deal. He took aim at the country multiple times on Twitter last week, saying its leadership didn’t “appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them.”