An Iranian senior security official issued a stark caution to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, warning the U.S. leader to “be careful not to get eliminated yourself” amid rising tensions over control of a crucial oil shipping lane.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted the veiled assassination caution on X after Trump vowed he would strike Iran “twenty times harder” if Tehran disrupted oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Larijani’s comment came two days after Trump’s blunt Truth Social post threatening “Death, Fire, and Fury” should Iran interfere with the strategic waterway that handles roughly 20% of global oil shipments.
“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 marks a sharp uptick in hostile rhetoric 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 a joint U.S.-Israeli operation. Larijani, who has played a key role in planning Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab countries, previously vowed on state television to hold Trump directly responsible for Khamenei’s death.
The U.S. has accused Iran of plotting multiple assassination attempts against Trump in recent years, allegations Tehran rejects. 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 said at a briefing.
Those alleged plots have had real-world consequences. On Friday, a New York jury found a Pakistani national guilty of attempting to hire hit men on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out political murders in the United States. Prosecutors said intended targets included Trump, former President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed charges against an Afghan man who reportedly had been contacted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and asked to develop a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The threats were serious enough that after a second assassination attempt in Florida that year—which was not linked to Iran—Trump’s security detail had him attend an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff.
Trump has said he left directives with his team regarding possible Iranian assassination plots. Last year he told reporters that if Iran managed to kill him, “they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
The heightened threats coincided with Iran launching 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 also struck energy infrastructure and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, contributing to a notable rise in oil prices since the conflict began.
Brent crude saw volatility this week, surging past $100 per barrel before slipping back—still well above prices at the start of the war on February 28. The attacks appear intended to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the U.S. and Israel to stop their military campaign.
At a Tuesday press briefing, Defense Secretary Hegseth echoed Trump’s concerns about the Strait of Hormuz, while Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not rule out U.S. naval escorts for ships passing through the strategic route.
Tehran residents reported hearing multiple explosions Tuesday afternoon as Israel carried out another round of airstrikes on Iranian targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the strikes would continue, saying the goal is to help Iranians “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”
Despite rising tensions and economic disruption, Trump sought to downplay the prospect of a prolonged conflict, calling the operation “going to be a short-term excursion.” Oil prices fell sharply in early Tuesday trading after the president said the fighting would end “very soon.”
The direct warning to Trump from a top Iranian official represents an unprecedented development in U.S.-Iran relations, with TIME characterizing Larijani’s post as the clearest threat yet from Tehran’s leadership toward the American president.
