A senior Iranian security figure issued a chilling warning toward President Donald Trump on Tuesday, telling the U.S. leader to “be careful not to get eliminated yourself” as tensions rise over control of a key oil transit route.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, shared the veiled assassination warning on X after Trump said he would hit Iran “twenty times harder” if Tehran interfered with oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Larijani’s message followed two days after Trump’s stark statement on Truth Social that promised “Death, Fire, and Fury” should Iran disrupt the vital waterway that handles about 20% of global oil exports.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Larijani wrote in his Tuesday, March 10, 2026 post, according to TIME Magazine.
The remark represents a sharp escalation in the rhetorical showdown between Washington and Tehran, arriving nearly two weeks after Israel killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 during the opening day of the joint U.S.-Israeli operation. Larijani, who has been central to planning Iran’s counterstrikes against Israel and Gulf Arab states, previously vowed on state television to hold Trump personally accountable for Khamenei’s death.
The U.S. has accused Iran of plotting several assassination attempts against Trump over recent years, claims Tehran denies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that U.S. forces killed the head of a covert Iranian unit that had been plotting to assassinate the president during recent strikes inside Iran. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth stated at a briefing.
The assassination plots are not just talk. On Friday, a New York jury convicted a Pakistani national who sought to hire hit men on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out political killings in the United States. Prosecutors said the intended victims included Trump, former President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against an Afghan man who allegedly was contacted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and asked to devise a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The threats grew so serious that after the second assassination attempt in Florida that year—which was not tied to Iran—Trump’s security team had him attend an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff.
Trump has said he left instructions with his team about potential Iranian assassination attempts. Last year he told reporters that if Iran succeeded in killing him, “they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
The heightened threats come as Iran launched new strikes Tuesday against Israel and Gulf Arab states, using missiles and drones against Israeli targets and U.S. bases across the region. The Islamic Republic has also targeted energy infrastructure and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, driving a sharp rise in oil prices since the conflict began.
Brent crude has been volatile this week, spiking past $100 per barrel before retreating—still much higher than levels when the war began on February 28. The attacks seem aimed at creating enough global economic pain to pressure the U.S. and Israel to halt their military campaign.
At a Tuesday press conference, Defense Secretary Hegseth echoed Trump’s warning about the Strait of Hormuz, while Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not rule out U.S. naval escorts for vessels transiting the strategic passage.
Tehran witnesses reported hearing multiple explosions Tuesday afternoon as Israel launched another round of airstrikes on Iranian targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged the strikes would continue, saying the aim is to help Iranians “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”
Despite mounting tensions and economic disruption, Trump tried to minimize fears of a prolonged war, calling the operation “going to be a short-term excursion.” Oil prices dipped sharply in early Tuesday trading after the president said the conflict would end “very soon.”
The direct warning to Trump from a top Iranian official marks an unprecedented moment in U.S.-Iran relations, with TIME reporting Larijani’s post as the clearest threat yet from Tehran’s leadership toward the American president.