Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has been posting threats against Trump on social media, including images depicting the president in a coffin. Standard fare from a regime that’s been threatening American leaders for decades.

Trump’s response? He’s left instructions.

“They shouldn’t be doing it, but I’ve left notification. Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump told NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich. “I have very firm instructions—anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth.”

That’s not diplomatic ambiguity. That’s a promise.

The Biden Contrast

Trump pointed out what everyone noticed during the previous administration: Biden said nothing when Iran threatened American officials.

“Originally, Biden should have said something, when they made a statement. We always said, ‘Why isn’t Biden saying anything?’ Because he didn’t.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps was literally plotting to assassinate John Bolton—Biden’s own Justice Department indicted an IRGC member for offering $300,000 to a confidential source to carry out the hit. And Biden’s response was… silence.

“A president has to defend a president,” Trump said. “If I were here, and they were making that threat to somebody, even not even a president, but somebody, like they did with me, I would absolutely hit them so hard.”

They Know He Means It

Here’s what makes Trump’s warning credible: he’s already done it.

In January 2020, Trump ordered the strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander. The foreign policy establishment predicted World War III. Iran launched some missiles at empty bases and called it even. Deterrence restored.

Then came June 2025. Operation “Midnight Hammer.” Seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew 37 hours to drop 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. No American losses. Significant damage to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

The regime that was months away from a nuclear bomb suddenly found itself years behind. Trump didn’t negotiate. He didn’t send pallets of cash. He sent bunker busters.

So when Trump says he’s left instructions to wipe Iran off the map if anything happens to him, the mullahs have every reason to believe it.

The Deterrence Doctrine

This is what actual deterrence looks like. Not stern statements from the State Department. Not UN resolutions. Not diplomatic expressions of concern.

A direct, unambiguous threat: kill me and your country ceases to exist.

The foreign policy establishment clutches their pearls at this kind of talk. They prefer carefully calibrated responses and proportional retaliation. They think restraint signals sophistication.

Iran sees restraint as weakness. They’ve spent 45 years testing American resolve, and every time we flinch, they push harder. Hostage-taking. Embassy attacks. Proxy wars. Assassination plots. The IRGC operates like a terrorist organization with a country attached.

Trump’s approach is simple: make the cost of action so catastrophic that the regime doesn’t dare act. It’s not subtle. It’s not sophisticated. And based on the results—Soleimani dead, nuclear program cratered, regime on its heels—it works.

The Standing Order

“Very firm instructions.” That phrase matters.

Trump isn’t saying he’d retaliate if something happened. He’s saying the retaliation is already authorized. Predetermined. Automatic. The decision has been made in advance, and the military knows exactly what to do.

That removes any possibility of Iranian miscalculation. They can’t hope that killing Trump would create chaos that prevents American response. They can’t bet on a successor being too weak or too cautious to act. The instructions are already in place.

It’s a dead man’s switch for the Iranian regime. And everyone now knows it exists.

The Message

Khamenei can keep posting his coffin memes. His propaganda arm can keep threatening the Great Satan. But somewhere in Tehran, military planners are running the calculations.

Can they actually get to Trump? Probably not. Is it worth the risk of trying? Absolutely not.

That’s deterrence. Not hoping your enemies will behave. Making them afraid to misbehave.

Trump just told Iran—publicly, clearly, unmistakably—that his death means their destruction. Given what he’s already done to their nuclear program and their top general, only a fool would test whether he’s bluffing.