Javad Larijani, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned President Donald Trump is not safe from an assassination attempt from the regime, even when he “sunbathes” at his Florida home.
Top Iranian adviser Larijani made the threat during televised remarks, informing the White House that Trump “might” be targeted by the regime through a possible drone strike attempting to assassinate the U.S. leader at Mar-a-Lago.
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“Trump has done something that he can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago. As he lies there with his stomach to the sun, a small drone might hit him in the navel. It’s very simple,” Larijani said in remarks aired on Iranian television.
Federal agencies have long warned Iran is seeking to assassinate Trump, particularly since he ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qassem Soleimani during his first term.
While the regime has, in the past, denied accusations that it is targeting Trump, Iranian threats against the president increased last year as he campaigned for reelection, according to U.S. officials.
Last July, government authorities reported intelligence that Iran was plotting to assassinate Trump, a development that led to enhanced Secret Service protection for the then-GOP presidential candidate.
In September, weeks after the Trump campaign said it had been hacked by Iran, with a dossier on Vice President J.D. Vance being leaked to outlets, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released FBI documents that implicated Iran in another plot to assassinate Trump. The Iowa Republican said that former President Joe Biden and ex-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley were also targeted by Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man, who said he discussed assassination strategies on American political figures with an Iranian handler named Mehardad Yousef.
Hours after Trump won a second term last November, a social media account associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps posted a video threatening to assassinate the incoming president, showing images of Trump in a sniper’s crosshairs and spitting up blood.
The following day, the Justice Department announced it had charged three people in connection with an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill Trump before the 2024 election, revealing that the IRGC asked one of the defendants in September to monitor the president and develop a plan to kill him.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, known as a close ally of the U.S. and a fierce critic of Iran, claimed last month that his country’s intelligence showed Iran was also behind both assassination attempts on Trump’s life in 2024. The president’s narrow escape from a sniper’s gunfire at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally and another assassination attempt at his golf course last September both originated from Iran, the Israeli prime minister said.
During an interview in June, Netanyahu said Iran viewed Trump as “enemy number one” due in part to his role in pulling the U.S. out of the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement with Iran, which was heavily criticized by U.S. Middle Eastern allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Iran “wants to kill him” because Trump “never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak,” the Israeli prime minister said.
“He took up this fake agreement and basically tore it up,” Netanyahu continued. “He made it very clear, including now, ‘You cannot have a nuclear weapon, which means you cannot enrich uranium.’ He’s been very forceful, so for them, he’s enemy number one.”
The U.S. and Israel have held discussions in recent months over possibly carrying out an assassination attempt on Khamenei. Trump vetoed an Israeli-backed plan to do so in June, even as he warned that the U.S. knew of his location.
The president’s reluctance to target Khamenei comes as the U.S. eyes making a new peace deal with Iran after Trump recently bombed three of the regime’s nuclear sites.
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On Monday evening, Trump told reporters that peace talks with Iran are on the table, with White House officials saying meetings with the regime could take place within the next week.
“We have scheduled Iran talks,” the president revealed. “They want to work something out. … They’re very different now than they were two weeks ago.”