July 17, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
Iran Is Out to Kill Trump
If the clerics survive, they will hunt the president as they did Salman Rushdie.
July 17, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
Iran Is Out to Kill Trump
If the clerics survive, they will hunt the president as they did Salman Rushdie.
Excerpt
Tehran can’t stop. Not a day goes by in which Iranian religious or political officials don’t threaten the life of President Trump. As long as the regime lives, so will the threat.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini made clear 40 years ago that when Iranian mobs chant “Death to America,” it means they want to kill the U.S. president. His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, restated the point: “‘Death to America’ means death to Trump.” Mr. Trump constitutes a unique threat to the mullahs because he has actually used American military might to punish the regime for its behavior.
Mr. Taleblu is a senior director of the Iran program and Mr. Ghasseminejad is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.