There’s no evidence that agents from Iran have ever tried to assassinate President Trump – though there have been lots of rumors and even a federal court case suggesting some kind of past plot in a “murder-for-hire” scheme.
But the topic was raised as Trump spoke to NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich Tonight, which marked the second anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. He said in the Tuesday interview that if Iran were to attempt to assassinate him, he would issue the “order to wipe it off the face of this Earth.”
“Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump said, adding, “I would absolutely hit them so hard. But I have very firm instructions.”
Alongside the threat based on the imagined scenario, he lashed out at former President Joe Biden, arguing that the prior administration failed to respond forcefully enough to threats made by Iran against him.
“A president has to defend a president,” Trump continued, emphasizing that he would act decisively even if threats were aimed at “somebody, not even a president.”
After pulling back from strikes on Iran last week, President Trump is still pressing aides for what he terms “decisive” military options, U.S. officials said, as Iran appears to have tightened its control of the country and targets protesters through a crackdown that has killed thousands.
This comes after a couple weeks of large-scale protests in Iran left hundreds dead. Estimates are in the thousands killed.
But amid international condemnation, Tehran has said that casualties among police and security personnel were in the hundreds.
Iranian leaders have accused violent and well-armed foreign-sponsored entities of hijacking what started out as economic-driven protests. And they say the West is using this as a justification to potentially mount a regime change war.
