Iran's leader 'deserved to face justice,' DeSantis says

Katelyn Ferral, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 5, 2026

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signaled support for Operation Epic Fury on Thursday, saying Iran’s late leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “deserved to face justice.”

DeSantis made the comments, his first since the U.S. launched strikes over the weekend, in response to a question during a news conference in Yulee, in Nassau County, Florida.

“That regime, they would kill as many Americans as they could, and that is just the reality of who we’re dealing with,” he said.

Iran was behind bombings that killed hundreds of Americans during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan starting in 2001.

DeSantis deployed to Iraq in 2007 as a U.S. Navy judge advocate general, or JAG, officer. The majority of the people he served with were killed at the hands of Iranian-developed weapons or militant groups trained and directed by the regime, he said.

“As somebody who was over in Iraq at that time, that saw the casualties, that saw that it was the Iranians behind it. They never really faced justice,” he said. “Now ... all the ayatollahs are dropping like flies.”

While tactical questions about how the U.S. hits Iran remain open, DeSantis said, Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. He characterized its government as “a fanatical, apocalyptic, militant Islamist regime.”

DeSantis said he was saddened to learn of Floridian Capt. Cody Khork‘s death. A U.S. Army reservist from Lakland, Khork was killed Sunday in a strike on a command center in Kuwait, along with five others.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to the people who are doing that,” DeSantis said.