Iran‘s top national security leader threatened President Donald Trump in a social media post on Tuesday, as the war with Iran stretches into its second week.
“Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Ali Larijani posted on X, responding to an image of a Truth Social post from Trump. The translation of the X post from Arabic is according to the Associated Press.
Larijani, the Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, also threatened Trump over the weekend, saying Trump must “pay the price” for Operation Epic Fury, according to CNN.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about or who he is. I couldn’t care less,” Trump said in response over the weekend, according to the outlet.
The U.S. military has struck over 5,000 targets and significantly undercut the capabilities of Iran’s military. But the regime has a network of terrorist cells spanning beyond the nation’s borders, and U.S. officials have warned that domestic threat levels have increased.
Larijani is the latest Iranian official to make an apparent threat on Trump’s life. War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week — the first week of Operation Epic Fury — that the U.S. military killed an unnamed Iranian official allegedly behind a 2024 plot to assassinate Trump.
Iranian officials and Iranian state media issued several ominous statements and foreboding images threatening Trump over the past year amid spiking tensions with the U.S. In July 2025, Larijani’s brother, Javad Larijani, a senior adviser to former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened Trump’s safety.
“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,” Javad Larijani said.
In January 2026, Iran’s state TV issued another assassination threat against Trump, using images from the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The video’s caption read, “This time, it won’t miss,” referring to the bullet.
Trump’s security detail has been responding to Iranian threats of aggression toward the president for several years. During Trump’s first term, the regime targeted the American president after he ordered the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qassem Soleimani and pulled out of former President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement with Iran.
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The Department of Justice indicted three people in November 2024 in connection with the alleged Iranian-led plot to kill Trump before the election.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the White House for comment.