A senior Iranian security official issued a chilling warning to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, telling the U.S. leader to “be careful not to get eliminated yourself” as tensions rise over control of a key oil shipping route.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted the veiled assassination warning on X after Trump said he would strike Iran “twenty times harder” if Tehran blocked oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Larijani’s comment came two days after Trump’s blunt post on Truth Social, which threatened “Death, Fire, and Fury” if Iran interfered with the strategic waterway that carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Larijani wrote in his Tuesday, March 10, 2026 post, according to TIME Magazine.
The message represents a sharp escalation in the rhetorical clash between Washington and Tehran, arriving nearly two weeks after Israel assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 during the opening day of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation. Larijani, who has been involved in planning Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab states, had previously said on national television he would hold Trump personally accountable for Khamenei’s death.
The United States has accused Iran of plotting multiple assassination attempts against Trump in recent years, allegations Tehran denies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that U.S. forces killed the head of a covert Iranian unit that had been planning to assassinate the president during recent strikes inside Iran. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said at a briefing.
The assassination plots are not just rhetoric. On Friday, a New York jury convicted a Pakistani man who tried to hire hit men on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out political killings in the United States. Prosecutors said the intended victims included Trump, former President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against an Afghan man who allegedly was approached by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and asked to develop a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The threats grew so severe that after the second assassination attempt in Florida that year—which was not linked to Iran—Trump’s security team had him travel to an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff.
Trump has said he left orders with his team concerning potential Iranian assassination attempts. He told reporters last year that if Iran succeeded in killing him, “they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
The heightened threats coincide with Iran launching new attacks Tuesday against Israel and Gulf Arab states, firing missiles and drones at Israeli targets and U.S. bases across the region. Tehran has also targeted energy infrastructure and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices sharply higher since the conflict began.
Brent crude has been volatile this week, spiking above $100 per barrel before retreating—still well above levels at the start of the war on February 28. The strikes appear aimed at creating sufficient global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to halt their military campaign.
At a Tuesday news conference, Defense Secretary Hegseth reiterated Trump’s warning about the Strait of Hormuz, while Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not rule out U.S. naval escorts for ships transiting the strategic passage.
Witnesses in Tehran reported hearing several explosions Tuesday afternoon as Israel launched another series of airstrikes on Iranian targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes would continue, telling Israelis the aim is to help Iranians “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”
Despite rising tensions and economic disruption, Trump tried to play down the prospect of a prolonged conflict, calling the operation “going to be a short-term excursion.” Oil prices fell sharply in early Tuesday trading after the president said the war would end “very soon.”
The explicit warning to Trump from a senior Iranian official marks an unprecedented moment in U.S.-Iran relations, with TIME reporting that Larijani’s post was the clearest threat yet from Tehran’s leadership toward the American president.
