President Donald Trump said Friday that he has left instructions on how the United States should respond if Iran follows through on what he described as longstanding threats against his life.
Speaking with the New York Post’s Caitlin Doornbos, Trump said he has been a target of the Iranian regime for years and outlined the instructions he claims he has already put in place.
“I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with,” Trump told the Post.
The president said he has directed what should happen if an assassination attempt against him were to succeed.
“I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came after remarks he made during this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, where he suggested Iran could be attempting to target him personally.
Speaking during the summit, Trump said he believes he is Iran’s “No. 1 target.”
The president’s remarks at the summit were followed by claims from Israel that it had shared intelligence indicating the Iranian regime was “considering” a new assassination plan targeting Trump.
However, during his interview with the New York Post, Trump rejected those claims and said no such intelligence had been provided by Israel.
“No, no. Israel came up with nothing. No, no,” Trump said.
Instead, Trump maintained that he has been at the top of Iran’s list for a significant period of time.
“I’ve been No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time, and it’s the way life is, you know,” he said.
The president also made a lighthearted remark while discussing the possibility of an attack.
“I hope you’ll miss me,” Trump added.
Trump’s interview focused on what he described as the continuing threat posed by Iran and his belief that he has remained a target of the regime for years. While he dismissed reports that Israel recently provided intelligence about a new assassination plot, he reiterated that the danger he faces is not new.
The comments also came after Trump publicly discussed the issue during the NATO summit earlier in the week, where he suggested Iran may be looking to assassinate him and described himself as the regime’s top target.
In his interview with the New York Post, Trump stood by that broader assessment while disputing the specific claim that Israel had supplied new intelligence about an active assassination plan.
According to Trump, the situation reflects a threat he has long acknowledged rather than a newly emerging development.
The president did not elaborate further on the instructions he said he had left behind, beyond stating that they called for a forceful military response if Iran were to carry out an assassination against him.
His remarks underscored his view that the threat from Iran has persisted for years and that preparations have already been made in response to that possibility.
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