MSNBC anchor Erielle Reshef reacted with laughter Friday while discussing President Donald Trump’s comments about reported assassination threats from Iran, though she later acknowledged she believes the threat itself is credible.
Reshef, filling in for Alicia Menendez on MS NOW’s On the Line, covered reports that Israel had shared intelligence with U.S. officials suggesting Iran was “considering” a plan to assassinate Trump. During the segment, she highlighted several of the president’s recent public remarks on the issue, at times struggling to contain her laughter.
Trump addressed reporters during this week’s NATO summit, where he spoke about what he described as ongoing threats against him.
“They want to take out the U.S. leader, me,” Trump said. “I’m on every list. I saw things this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long because that’s the way it goes.”
As Reshef read the president’s comments on air, she chuckled after reaching his closing remark about being “a little bit lucky.”
The MSNBC host then turned to another statement Trump made in an interview with the New York Post regarding instructions he said he had left for his administration in the event he were assassinated.
According to Reshef’s reading of the interview, Trump said, “I’ve left instructions if anything happens to — I assume he means anything happens to — just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before… I hope you’ll miss me.”
Trump’s closing quip again prompted laughter from Reshef.
“I don’t mean to laugh at that, but I don’t know what else to do,” she said after reading the president’s remarks.
Although amused by Trump’s phrasing, Reshef later made clear that she viewed the underlying security concerns as genuine.
During the discussion, MSNBC senior reporter David Rohde said he could not independently confirm the specific intelligence report alleging Iran was considering an assassination plot. However, both he and Reshef agreed that threats against the president should be taken seriously amid the ongoing conflict.
Reshef pointed to public displays in Iran as part of the reason she viewed the threat as credible.
“They were chanting death to Trump at the funeral for [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei],” she said. “It’s pretty transparent.”
Rohde agreed that he believed there was a legitimate threat against Trump, while emphasizing that public demonstrations alone do not necessarily indicate an attack could be carried out.
“Women holding up signs, like, kill Trump… that doesn’t mean protesters in Iran are able to carry it out,” Rohde said. “But I think it’s credible. I think there is a threat on his life.”
Rohde also commented that Trump has faced more assassination attempts than any other American president, calling that “a terrible thing for our country.”
He then shifted to the broader military implications of the conflict, arguing that large-scale bombing campaigns alone are unlikely to force a regime to collapse.
Referring to Trump’s statement about bombing Iran “at levels that they’ve never seen before,” Rohde argued that military force without a ground invasion is unlikely to achieve that objective.
“I think the key lesson of this war is that you cannot be, I think, credible unless you’re going to mount a ground invasion of a country,” Rohde said.
He added that if a government expects an opposing regime to collapse or surrender, it would require that level of military commitment. At the same time, Rohde stressed that he was not advocating for such an action.
“I’m not saying we should do that,” he said. “But if you’re not prepared to send in ground troops, do not go to war. And now he’s stuck.”
[READ MORE: Trump Says He Left Instructions if Iran Carries Out Assassination Threat]
