President Donald Trump has briefed advisors on what to do if he is assassinated by Iran during his second term in office.
After being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, the 78-year-old has already caused a stir—ordering a halt to federal aid, signing a mandating process to build a missile defense shield around the country, pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, amongst other things.
On Tuesday (February 4), Trump made his latest revelation, stating there is already a plan in place to ‘obliterate’ Iran if it elects to assassinate him.
Previously, the Justice Department claimed it had thwarted an Iranian murder-for-hire plot against Trump in November 2024.
President Donald Trump says Iran would be ‘obliterated’ if it attempted to assassinate him (Fox News)
The Associated Press reports that investigators were told of the alleged plan to kill the businessman by 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri, who, according to Sky News, is still at large in Iran.
A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan claimed that he was instructed to set aside previous plans and carry out the assassination within seven days by a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Shakeri reportedly told the FBI that he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, as per the complaint, with the plan allegedly being paused until the election’s conclusion.
Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, denied the alleged plot, calling it ‘totally unfounded’. He went on to say that previous accusations which turned out to be false had been made in the past, and such claims risked ‘further complicating the issues between the US and Iran’ (via the BBC).
Now, Trump has revealed what he’s instructed his advisors to do in the off-chance that he is killed by Iranian assassins.
Earlier this week, the father-of-five restored his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran by signing a presidential memorandum as he claimed Tehran was ‘too close’ to having a nuclear weapon.
While writing the memo, Trump stated: “With me, it’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
He added he was open to speaking to and reaching an agreement with Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, ‘so that it doesn’t end up in a very catastrophic situation’, according to Iran International.
In a following exchange with reporters, he also said that if Iran assassinated him, it ‘would be obliterated’.
“That would be a terrible thing for them to do, not because of me. If they did that they would be obliterated. That would be the end.” he said. “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left, and they shouldn’t be able to do it.”
Trump also criticised former President Joe Biden while speaking to reporters (Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)
Trump went on to criticise his predecessor, 46th president of the United States Joe Biden, claiming he ‘should have said’ what he said.
“But he never did. I don’t know why. Lack of intelligence perhaps?,” he alleged. “If that happens to a leader or close to a reader frankly if you had other people involved also, you would call for total obliteration of the state that did it.”
Trump clarified that his comments included Iran, before saying that although the memo he’d signed was ‘very powerful’, he hoped that he didn’t have to use it.
If the businessman were assassinated, Vice President JD Vance would then become president, however, the Associated Press reports that he would not be bound by any instructions left by his predecessor.
