Mike Baker

That's a reference to the canceled, or at least delayed, mass executions of protesters that the regime was reportedly planning last week.

Khamenei has responded to Trump in kind.

Khamenei's ex-account posted a series of hostile messages aimed at Trump, accusing the U.S.

president of being responsible for deadly violence and unrest in Iran.

Khamenei, or whomever is in charge of his ex, and I think also he has a TikTok account, stated, quote, We find the U.S.

president guilty due to the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation.

The Ayatollah also branded Trump a criminal.

And that brings us to a key development.

Iranian officials are now acknowledging a death toll of at least 5,000 people as a result of their crackdown on protesters.

That number is significant for a couple of reasons.

First, it's substantially higher than many Western estimates had been, which had placed the toll closer to 2,500.

Second, if the regime in Tehran is willing to admit to 5,000 deaths, well, the real number could likely be higher.

This is also the first time Ayatollah Khamenei himself has publicly acknowledged the scale of the killings.

Now, when regimes admit mass casualties, they're often doing two things at once.

They're locking in their version of events, and they're preparing the ground for what may come next.

In this case, Iranian authorities are already signaling that the judiciary may pursue harsh punishments, including executions, against those they accuse of fueling the unrest.

The Iranian regime is, of course, under internal pressure, publicly acknowledging bloodshed on a massive scale and escalating its rhetoric against Washington.

The U.S., meanwhile, is moving the kinds of military assets you reposition when you want credible, executable options.

None of this means that a strike is inevitable, but the infrastructure, for one, is being quietly assembled.

Well, not so quietly.