Trump Calls Iran ‘Enemy of the World’ in Social Media Tirade as Doha Faces Missile Barrage

In an escalating war of words to match the shooting war on the ground, Donald Trump used social media Friday to portray Iran as a global menace that had spent nearly five decades killing innocent people, calling its leaders “deranged scumbags” and declaring it his personal mission as the 47th president to eliminate them. The rhetoric accompanied a day of extraordinary violence that saw not only Tehran but also Doha, Riyadh, Dubai, and the Omani port of Sohar come under attack or threat. The conflict has become one of the broadest and most destructive regional wars in modern Middle Eastern history.
Qatar was among the most dramatic new theaters of conflict on Friday, with the country’s interior ministry issuing evacuation orders for parts of Doha before explosions were heard in the city centre. Qatar’s defence ministry subsequently confirmed that a missile attack had been successfully intercepted. Saudi Arabia reported neutralizing close to 50 Iranian drones fired in multiple coordinated waves. In Oman, two people died when drones crashed in an industrial area near the port city of Sohar. Debris from intercepted projectiles struck a building at the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced new salvoes of missiles and drones aimed at Israel, framing the attacks as part of the annual al-Quds Day observance, which traditionally expresses support for the Palestinian cause. At the same time, Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, installed after Israel’s killing of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a written statement pledging continued resistance. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the statement as weak and said the leader had been wounded and disfigured in the strikes.
Israel continued its intensive bombing campaign in Lebanon, where more than 600 people have been killed and 800,000 displaced. An Israeli strike on the coastal city of Sidon killed at least eight people and wounded nine more on Friday. Israeli forces also targeted the Zrarieh Bridge over Lebanon’s Litani River, claiming Hezbollah was using it for troop movements. Hezbollah responded with rocket attacks on northern Israel, injuring close to 60 people.
At the close of a catastrophic day, Trump announced that Kharg Island had been militarily obliterated by US forces and warned that oil infrastructure would be next if Iran did not allow free shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has lost 13 service members, including six who died in a tanker aircraft accident over Iraq. France lost a soldier to an Iranian militia drone strike in the same country. With markets rattled, diplomats scrambling, and no ceasefire in sight, the war showed every sign of entering an even more dangerous phase.