Is the Iranian regime trying to prove something to Tucker Carlson? At first glance, it would be surprising if the regime’s top dogs paid any attention to Tucker at all, but at this point, it sure looks as if they do. Iranian officials have been falling all over themselves recently to emphasize that yes, the Islamic Republic of Iran wants President Donald Trump dead, and it will even pay the hit man. It practically looks as if the mullahs watched Carlson’s interview of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) last month and were offended that Carlson didn’t believe they were trying to do any such thing.
During that interview, Carlson expressed extreme skepticism about the idea that the Islamic Republic of Iran was trying to assassinate Trump. Carlson attributed the claim to the bogeyman of every one of Israel’s newly minted foes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, Carlson asserted, “said that Iran tried to assassinate Donald Trump twice….He said that they tried to, have tried twice to kill him. And I don’t know that, I don’t have any evidence that’s true, but I sort of wonder: If that is true, why aren’t we at war with him already?”
Since then, it seems as if Iranian officials are vying with one another to see who can be first to get Tucker to issue a correction. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, one of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top advisers, said last Wednesday, “Trump can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago, because while he’s lying down, a small drone might target and strike him right in the navel. It’s very simple.”
This wasn’t the first time the Iranian regime had threatened to target Trump in a drone strike. Back in January 2021, Khamenei’s official website “posted a photo-montage of former U.S. President Donald Trump playing golf under the shadow of a drone, vowing to avenge the assassination of Iran’s Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.”
Trump himself, however, laughed off Larijani’s threat. Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked him, “Do you think that’s a real threat? And when is the last time you went sunbathing, anyway?” Trump replied, “It’s been a long time. I don’t know, maybe I was around seven or so. I’m not too big into it. Yeah, I guess it’s a threat. I’m not sure it’s a threat, actually, but perhaps it is.”
There was no ambiguity, however, about the threat that another key Iranian official, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, issued on July 2, 2025. “According to the recent fatwas [by the Iranian grand ayatollahs],” said Araki, “the administration and the president of the U.S. are defined for all Muslims as a kafir harbi regime – that is, their property and lives are permitted to us, as are the lives of those who rely on the American government.” A kafir harbi is an infidel at war with Islam; Araki was saying that Muslims could lawfully take the lives of Trump and the members of his administration. He added, “Anyone who supports Trump, or supports the military, or who has supported and continues to support Trump’s war decisions, will suffer the same fate.”
This threat was justified, he said, because “the war that Trump, Netanyahu, and their partners forced on Islam, on the Muslims, and on the messenger of Allah is not their war on us. It is a war on the messenger of Allah, the Quran, Islam, and Allah Himself.” Who forced Iran’s client Hamas to massacre 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023? Araki didn’t address that question.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) also reported that on the day before Araki made those statements, Ayatollah Najm Al-Din Tabasi, a respected and important Shi’ite theologian, declared, “Trump’s hands were already stained with the pure blood of the martyrs of the resistance front [the January 2020 killing of IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani]. Even before the recent threat [to Khamenei], he already deserved ‘measure for measure’ punishment. But the most recent threat proved once again that this man is a clear enemy of Islam and the Supreme Leader, and that he must be punished in accordance with his actions.”
Tabasi was apparently referring to rumors, widely accepted among the Iranian leadership, that Trump had called for the killing of Khamenei, when in reality, he did just the opposite. Indifferent to reality, Araki continued: “The same hand that once sent an arrow [i.e. bullet] to Trump's ear [in July 2024] can now accurately strike the target. Based on these fatwas, the bold young people of the Islamic world will no longer allow this criminal any sense of security, and will make him an example and a moral for the enemies of Islam.”
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On American Independence Day, Tehran’s Friday prayer imam, Ahmad Khatami, likewise expressed outrage at Trump’s supposed threat to kill Khamenei and said, “As a senior jurisprudence lecturer in Qom,” a Shi’ite holy city that is full of seminaries, “I say the ruling to punish Trump and Netanyahu is the death sentence.”
There is much more. A regime-controlled movement in Iran calling itself The Blood Covenant raised over $40 million online as a reward for anyone who killed Trump. How someone would do the deed and get safely to Iran was not addressed. Nevertheless, the underlying message couldn’t have been clearer: The Islamic Republic of Iran wants Trump dead.
