President Donald Trump revealed in February 2025 that he had already given explicit instructions for the complete obliteration of Iran if the regime ever succeeded in assassinating him.

Speaking with Fox News’ Peter Doocy in the Oval Office on February 4, 2025, Trump stated:  

“That would be a terrible thing for them to do… If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated. There won’t be anything left.”

The comments, which resurfaced this week, were made in response to concerns about Iranian retaliation for the 2020 killing of Qasem Soleimani. They gained fresh relevance after The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Israeli officials had briefed Trump on a new active Iranian plot to assassinate him.

Trump’s warning came roughly one year before the launch of Operation Epic Fury in late February 2026. During the initial wave of that operation, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. At his funeral procession, protesters carried signs reading “We Will Kill Trump.”

The President’s blunt preemptive message leaves little ambiguity about the consequences Iran would face. With ongoing U.S. strikes against Iranian targets and heightened tensions in the region, Trump’s long-standing position remains unchanged: any attempt on his life would trigger a response that ends the Islamic Republic as it currently exists.