Iranian state television aired a direct assassination threat against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, broadcasting an image from the 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania rally shooting with the deadly threat: “This time it will not miss the target.”
The message appeared during pro-government rallies in Tehran, where protesters burned American flags and chanted “Death to America,” according to Agence France-Presse. The broadcast showed Trump bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents immediately after the July 2024 assassination attempt where a bullet grazed his ear.
The threatening message, written in Persian script below the photograph, represents Tehran’s most direct threat yet against the American president, coming as tensions between the United States and Iran have reached critical levels over the repressive Islamic regime’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz shared the image on social media and wrote, “Iran explicitly threatening to murder Trump.”
Fox host Mark Levin also shared the image and wrote, “Iranian regime threatening to assassinate our President and making clear they’ve tried before! It’s time to deal with this. I’m sure we will.”
The assassination threat follows weeks of escalating rhetoric between Trump and Iran’s leadership. Trump has repeatedly threatened military action if Iran continues to murder protesters who have taken to the streets since late December to demand an end to the clerical regime.
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday. “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!!”
Trump told Fox News last week that he has “put Iran on notice” and warned that if the regime shoots at demonstrators, the United States would intervene militarily.
“We’re looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One.
Iranian officials have responded with their own warnings. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, warned during a televised session Wednesday that U.S. military forces and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America launched an attack on the Islamic Republic.
“The disrespectful President of America should also know that with this official statement, all American centers and forces across the entire region will be legitimate targets for us in response to any potential actions,” Ghalibaf said.
The unrest sweeping Iran began in late December over widespread economic anger — but has since escalated into one of the biggest challenges to the radical Islamic leadership since it took power in 1979.
The Iranian Islamic regime responded by cutting the country’s internet and phone networks last Thursday. Despite the blackout, videos of the protests have reached the rest of the world.
They show massive crowds of demonstrators, and as anger mounts, there have been chants of “death to the dictator,” referring to the country’s supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Wednesday, it emerged that some U.S. military personnel were advised to leave Qatar’s Al Udeid airbase—which hosts the largest U.S. military contingent in the Middle East—by Wednesday evening, heightening fears of a U.S. strike and potential Iranian retaliation.
However, by the end of Wednesday, Trump appeared to soften his rhetoric slightly. The president told reporters he had been informed by “very important sources” that killings of protesters in Iran had stopped and that planned executions were halted.
“We were told that the killing in Iran is stopping… and there’s no plans for executions — an execution or executions. I’ve been told that on good authority. We’ll find out about it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
But Trump declined to take military action off the table, telling reporters, “No, we’re going to watch and see what the process is. But we were given a very good, very good statement by people that are aware of what’s going on.”
This is not the first time Iran has targeted Trump. In 2022, the regime released a propaganda video simulating his assassination at Mar-a-Lago. That footage resurfaced after Ryan Routh’s failed assassination attempt at the same location in 2024.
Federal authorities also foiled an Iranian plot in 2024, arresting Farhad Shakeri, who was allegedly directed by the Revolutionary Guard to carry out an assassination of Trump. In a 2025 interview, Trump noted, “Big threats on my life by Iran,” while affirming that the military is vigilant.
Trump this week imposed a 25% tariff on countries that trade with Iran. On Monday, authorities in Tehran held a funeral ceremony for over 100 members of the security forces killed in the demonstrations, which authorities have branded as “riots” while accusing protesters of waging “acts of terror.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key ally of Trump, is pushing for the U.S. to attack the Iranian regime “sooner rather than later.”
“I believe that President Trump is serious when he says help is on the way,” Graham told reporters. “An attack on the regime is the only help that really matters.”
“The bottom line is, sooner rather than later, the people need to see what help on the way looks like, which is going after those who are killing them. Degrading the ability of the regime to oppress them, motivating people to stay out in the streets,” he said.