Donald Trump vowed to wipe Iran “off the face of this Earth” if alleged assassination threats against him were acted on.
The president issued the dire warning during his sit-down interview on NewsNation’s “Katie Pavlich Tonight” on Tuesday, where he made it clear that he had given “very firm instructions” on how the country was to respond in the wake of an assassination attempt.
“I’ve left notification. Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump told host Katie Pavlich.
As Trump continued, he called out his predecessor Joe Biden for not doing more to combat Iranian threats while president.
“Biden should have said something,” Trump added. “When they made a statement, we always said, ‘Why isn’t Biden saying anything?’ Because he didn’t.”
Trump was alerted about alleged threats from Iran during his 2024 Presidential campaign.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Merrick Garland, former attorney general under Biden, said in November. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald J. Trump.”
Garland said the plot was retaliation for the death Qasem Soleimani, who died in a US drone strike in January 2020, which was during Trump’s first term in office.
Despite the alert from the Biden administration, Trump felt Biden’s action was insufficient, adding, “A president has to defend a president. If I were here and they were making that threat to somebody, not even a president, but somebody like they did with me, I would absolutely hit them so hard.”
He added: “But I have very firm instructions. Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up.” Watch his comments below.
Trump’s comments come after Iranian state television allegedly aired a threat against the president, broadcasting a picture from the aftermath of the 2024 attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service later confirmed that they were aware of the image.
“Katie Pavlich Tonight” airs weeknights at 10 p.m. ET.
