President Trump on Saturday said it’s “time to look for new leadership” in Iran, after the nation’s leader lashed out at the president for supporting anti-government protesters and blamed the U.S. for the regime’s deadly crackdown.

In an interview with Politico, Trump doubled down on his criticism of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Tehran’s “use of violence” to govern the Middle East country.

“What he is guilty of, as the leader of a country, is the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before,” the president told the outlet. “In order to keep the country functioning, even though that function is a very low level, the leadership should focus on running his country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing people by the thousands in order to keep control.”

He added that “leadership is about respect, not fear and death.”

Khomeini in a series of posts on social platform X, suggested the widespread protests were a foreign-backed plot for the U.S. and Israel to “devour Iran.”

“From the beginning of the Islamic Revolution until today, the US has lost its dominance over Iran. And they want to bring Iran under their military, political & economic domination again. This isn’t [solely] related to the current US president either!” the leader wrote online. “Its a general US Policy.”

He also blasted Israel for strikes that damaged “the power grid, banks, and healthcare facilities” and accused its military of murdering “several thousand people.”

In his remarks to Politico, Trump called Khamenei “a sick man” who should “stop killing people.”

“His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership,” the president added.

Trump earlier this week canceled a series of meetings with Iranian officials and called on demonstrators in Tehran to “take over” the embattled nation’s institutions. The president also suggested “help is on the way” as the regime threatened more executions in response.

The death toll amid the protests is now above 3,000 and more than 22,000 people have been detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activist News Agency.

On Wednesday, Trump said sources informed him that the executions in Iran were going to stop. While he celebrated that news, he added the administration was not ruling out military action if the killings continued.