Published: 7:11am, 5 Feb 2025Updated: 7:34am, 5 Feb 2025
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he has given his advisers instructions to obliterate Iran if it assassinates him.
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“If they did that they would be obliterated,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters while signing a memorandum to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
If Trump were assassinated, US Vice-President J.D. Vance would become president and would not necessarily be bound by any instructions left by his predecessor.
Federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years.
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Trump ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
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Iran vows revenge if US fails to put former president Trump on trial for Soleimani killing
Iran vows revenge if US fails to put former president Trump on trial for Soleimani killing