THE BEAST

Former JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim "Ripper" Owens has expressed his gratitude for the fact that President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Qassem Soleimani , the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force.

Trump personally ordered the killing by airstrike of Iran's top general, who was viewed by the United States as a ruthless killer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying that Trump ordered the airstrike "without the consultation of Congress."

After one Twitter user pointed out that hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran on Monday for the funeral of "the guy Trump assassinated" — more people than attended the Trump inauguration — Owens replied: "And thank god 'The Guy' is Dead. Hope they are enjoying it" Tim also included a couple of American flag emojis.

Owens , who frequently "likes" tweets that support Trump 's policies and that are derogatory to Democrats, weighed in on the U.S. presidential race back in 2016, saying that Trump was perhaps what America needed to move the country forward. Claiming that he wasn't a Democrat or a Republican ("I'm in the middle," he said), Owens explained that he couldn't vote for Hillary Clinton because of "the way they tax people." He went on to say that America "had eight years of really bad" under President Barack Obama and opined that "a lot of American people" were "just trying to figure out something other than what [ Obama ] was doing."

Back in 2012, Owens revealed in an interview that he was voting for Mitt Romney in that year's election.

And thank god ‘The Guy’ is Dead . Hope they are enjoying it https://t.co/DFnCsOuArl

— Tim 'Ripper' Owens (@TimRipperOwens) January 7, 2020