A top Iranian security official issued a chilling threat against President Donald Trump’s life on Tuesday, warning the American leader to “be careful not to get eliminated yourself” as tensions between the two nations escalate over control of a vital oil shipping route.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted the veiled assassination threat on X after Trump warned he would strike Iran “twenty times harder” if Tehran blocked oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian official’s message came just two days after Trump’s stark warning on Truth Social, which promised “Death, Fire, and Fury” if Iran interfered with the strategic waterway that carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil supplies.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Larijani wrote in his Tuesday post, according to TIME Magazine.
The threat marks a dramatic escalation in the war of words between Washington and Tehran, coming nearly two weeks after Israel assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 during the first day of a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation. Larijani, who has played a central role in coordinating Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab countries, previously vowed on national television to hold Trump personally responsible for Khamenei’s death.
The United States has accused Iran of orchestrating multiple assassination plots against Trump in recent years, allegations that Tehran has consistently denied. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed last week that American forces killed the leader of a covert Iranian unit that had been planning to assassinate the president during recent military strikes inside Iran. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said during a press briefing.
The assassination threats are not merely rhetoric. On Friday, a jury in New York convicted a Pakistani man who attempted to hire hit men on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out political assassinations in the United States. Prosecutors said the targets included Trump, former President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against an Afghan man who allegedly was approached by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and instructed to develop a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The threats became so serious that after the second assassination attempt in Florida that year—which was not linked to Iran—Trump’s security detail had him travel to an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff, according to Axios.
Trump himself has made clear he left instructions for his team regarding potential Iranian assassination attempts. The president told reporters last year that if Iran succeeded in killing him, “they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
The escalating threats come as Iran launched new attacks on Tuesday against Israel and Gulf Arab countries, firing missiles and drones at Israeli targets and American bases throughout the region. The Islamic Republic has also targeted energy infrastructure and shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, causing oil prices to surge dramatically since the conflict began.
Brent crude has swung wildly this week, with prices spiking above $100 per barrel before pulling back—still significantly higher than when the war started on February 28. The attacks appear designed to generate enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their military campaign.
At a news conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Hegseth reiterated Trump’s warning about the Strait of Hormuz, while Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to rule out U.S. military escorts for ships passing through the strategic waterway.
Witnesses in Tehran reported hearing several explosions Tuesday afternoon as Israel commenced a new wave of airstrikes against Iranian targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the strikes would continue, telling Israelis the goal is to help Iranians “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”
Despite the escalating tensions and economic turmoil, Trump sought to downplay concerns about a prolonged conflict, describing the military operation as “going to be a short-term excursion.” Oil prices fell sharply in early Tuesday trading following the president’s comments that the war would end “very soon.”
The direct threat against Trump’s life from a senior Iranian official represents an unprecedented moment in U.S.-Iran relations, with TIME reporting that Larijani’s post marked the most explicit warning yet from Tehran’s leadership against the American president.
