Threats against Mr. Trump began in his first term and ramped up after he authorized the 2020 drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, architect of Iran’s regional terror strategy. In response, Iranian officials authorized an arrest warrant, placed a bounty on Mr. Trump’s head, and threatened to take deadly revenge against the president and his national security team.It's a very sad fact about our contemporary left that in a poll released last April 55% of those who identify as left of center said that killing President Trump would be justified, so a successful assassination attempt against him by the Iranians would doubtless result in much jubilation in Democrat precincts.
Contrary to recent denials by Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, these threats and plots are real. Books about the president’s time in office and on the campaign trail detail the precautions Mr. Trump had to take. U.S. authorities have been tracking, uncovering, and, where possible, prosecuting people involved. The feds have disrupted several Iranian plots to assassinate Mr. Trump on U.S. soil.
The threats proliferated following the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
Leading Shiite clerics tied to the regime branded Mr. Trump with labels such as mohareb (one who wars against God), mahdur al-damm (one whose blood must be spilled), mufsid fil-arz (corruptor of the earth), and kafir harbi (warring infidel). Under Islamic law each of these terms invites violence against the offender.
After Mr. Trump mocked Mr. Khamenei on Truth Social on June 27 and bragged about sparing his life, Grand Ayatollahs Nasser Makarem Shirazi and Hossein Noori Hamedani issued a fatwa condemning Mr. Trump as a mohareb who merits execution.
Their fatwa echoes the chilling decree by Mr. Khomeini against British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie in the late 1980s. Mr. Rushdie has had to live under protection for decades and nearly lost his life in a 2022 stabbing attack.
Clerics who train the next generation of Islamic Republic theologians at the Tehran Seminary released a statement labeling Mr. Trump a mahdur al-damm, indicating that his life is forfeit and his blood can be shed without legal consequence.
Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, a member of the regime’s Orwellian-sounding Assembly of Experts and Expediency Discernment Council, broadened the scope of these fatwas. Mr. Trump’s “property and life,” he said, “are permissible targets, and the lives of those dependent on the American government are also permissible targets.”
It's sick and deranged but that's unfortunately where a lot of the American electorate is in our current moment.
Perhaps, though, Mr. Trump might himself be considering declaring a fatwa, a fatwa against those horrid Iranian clerics. If so, I'm sure the Israelis would be happy to carry it out.
