The Iranian official who publicly vowed to eliminate President Donald Trump is now dead, killed in Israeli strikes. The operative Iran dispatched to assassinate him has been convicted in federal court. And the active war between the United States and Iran that erupted in February 2026 shows no sign of ending despite a fragile ceasefire Trump himself describes as being on “massive life support.”
It all traces back to an executive order Trump signed in February 2025 targeting Iran, and the chilling warning he delivered at the ceremony. “I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated; there won’t be anything left,” Trump declared, referring to standing orders he had issued in case of his assassination.
What seemed like bluster at the time now looks like a blueprint already executed.
A Threat Made Public — And Answered
As American and Israeli forces intensified their attacks on Iran, Ali Larijani — then-head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and among the most powerful figures in the Islamic Republic’s clerical regime — issued a direct assassination threat against the president. In a post on X, Larijani wrote: “The freedom-loving nation of Iran is not afraid of your hollow threats. Even those who were mightier than you have failed to destroy the Iranian nation. Watch yourself — or you’ll be eliminated.”
The post was signed by the Supreme National Security Council and came after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28 — the opening day of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign. Larijani had already promised on national television to hold Trump personally accountable for the supreme leader’s death. Trump told CBS News he “couldn’t care less.”
A week later, Israel announced it had killed Larijani along with Gholam Reza Soleimani, head of Iran’s Basij militia. Iranian authorities confirmed both men were dead. The official who most directly threatened Trump’s life had been eliminated — a literal enactment of the obliteration Trump had promised.
Years of Iranian Plotting
Trump’s contingency instructions did not appear in a vacuum. They followed years of documented Iranian efforts to kill him, a campaign rooted in January 2020 when Trump ordered the Baghdad drone strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force. Iranian officials have publicly and repeatedly vowed revenge since then, naming Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as targets.
Trump’s security team treated the Iranian threat as serious for years. Following an assassination attempt in Florida in 2024 — unrelated to Iran — his protective detail grew so concerned about the Iranian danger that they had Trump travel to an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff. The Justice Department has documented multiple alleged Iranian plots against Trump and other former officials, including a 2022 scheme targeting former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Killing the Assassination Unit’s Leader
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the commander of the Iranian unit responsible for a prior assassination attempt on Trump was also killed in U.S. military strikes. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth announced. Trump addressed it directly, saying: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first.” While Hegseth did not identify the individual by name, Israeli reporter Amit Segal reported it was Rahman Mokadam, head of the IRGC’s special operations division.
A federal jury in New York convicted Asif Merchant, a 47-year-old Pakistani national trained by the IRGC, of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. At trial, Merchant admitted the IRGC sent him to the United States in 2024 to arrange political assassinations, with Trump explicitly named as a target. The plot was disrupted before it could be executed. Merchant faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, with sentencing still pending.
Former Attorney General Pamela Bondi said of the conviction: “This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement.” A newly released undercover video played in the Brooklyn courtroom showed Merchant describing the plot in detail, placing a vape pen on a napkin to represent his target and asking: “This is the target. How will it die?”
An Unstable Pause
Trump announced a two-week ceasefire after Iran agreed to permit safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The agreement, brokered with Pakistan’s help, was framed by the White House as opening the door to broader negotiations. Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to Islamabad for direct talks with Iranian representatives.
But the ceasefire has since fractured. Iran has been accused of imposing fees on tankers passing through the Strait — a violation, according to Trump, of the agreed terms. Trump declared the ceasefire “on massive life support” after rejecting Tehran’s latest counterproposal as “totally unacceptable.” U.S. aides say the president is now more seriously weighing a return to full-scale combat operations than at any time since the pause took effect.
More than a year after Trump signed his executive order and warned that Iran would be obliterated if it assassinated him, those instructions no longer read as hypothetical. The officials who threatened him are dead. The operative sent to kill him is convicted. The war is underway. Trump’s warning has transformed from a deterrent into a record of what has already taken place.
