U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that Iran would face severe consequences if it ever succeeded in an alleged plot to assassinate him, saying he had already issued instructions for a major military response.
Trump made the remarks in an interview with The New York Post, where he said he had prepared contingency measures should any attempt be made on his life.
“I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before,” Trump said.
The U.S. president said he had been a target of Iranian threats for years, linking the situation to his decision in 2020 to authorise a U.S. strike that killed Iranian military commander, Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Trump, however, dismissed reports that Israel had recently provided the United States with intelligence about a new Iranian assassination plot against him.
“No, no. Israel came up with nothing,” he said, adding that Iran had considered him a target for a long time.
“I’ve been No. 1 on Iran’s kill list for a long time, and it’s the way life is,” Trump said.
The comments followed reports that Israeli intelligence officials had alerted their U.S. counterparts over a possible Iranian plot targeting the president.
Trump said he believed the threat from Iran remained unchanged, adding: “I hope you’ll miss me.”
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have remained high since the 2020 killing of Soleimani, with Iranian officials repeatedly vowing retaliation over the operation.
Trump has also survived previous assassination attempts, including an incident at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, where a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear.
Security agencies have since investigated several alleged threats against the U.S. president.
The White House has not disclosed further details on any current intelligence assessment regarding possible threats against Trump.
