PoliticsTuesday 02.04.25

“They would be obliterated”: Trump says he has left instructions to destroy Iran if the country assassinates him.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened the “total obliteration” of Iran if the country assassinates him in retaliation for the U.S. killing top Iranian official Qasem Soleimani.

“Iran and their proxies … have threatened to retaliate against you and your team by killing you guys for taking out Soleimani,” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Trump after he signed executive orders in the Oval Office.

“If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I’ve left instructions,” the president responded. “There won’t be anything left. And they shouldn’t be able to do it.”

“If that happens to a leader or close to a leader — frankly, if you had other people involved also — you would call for total obliteration of a state that did it,” Trump added. “That would include Iran.”

It’s not clear whether Trump was talking about a nuclear strike on Iran. During his first term, Trump reportedly mulled striking Iran’s nuclear facilities on his way out of office. In January 2020, Trump ordered a drone strike that assassinated Soleimani, one of Iran’s most revered military figures who was viewed as one of the most powerful people in the country. Iran vowed revenge, and has targeted Trump in recent years. The Justice Department charged at least two people for participating in what it said was a murder-for-hire plot to kill Trump when he was running for president last year.

Recount Wire

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