The United States has been at active war with Iran since February 28, 2026, and what once seemed like rhetorical bluster from President Donald Trump now reads like a blueprint that has been systematically executed. The Iranian official who publicly vowed to eliminate Trump is dead. The operative Tehran dispatched to carry out an assassination has been convicted in federal court. And the ceasefire intended to halt the conflict is, according to Trump, on “massive life support.”
It all traces back to a sweeping executive order Trump signed in February 2025 targeting Iran, accompanied by a warning that he had left standing instructions for the country to be “obliterated” if he was ever assassinated. “I’ve left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated; there won’t be anything left,” Trump declared at the signing ceremony. More than a year later, those instructions appear less like a hypothetical threat and more like a policy already in motion.
A Convicted Assassin and a Thwarted Plot
A federal jury in New York convicted Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national trained by the IRGC, of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Merchant admitted at trial that the IRGC sent him to the United States to arrange political assassinations, with Trump named explicitly as a target. The plot was foiled before it could be carried out. Merchant faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, with sentencing pending.
A newly released undercover video shown in the Brooklyn courtroom captured Merchant describing the plot in detail, placing a vape pen on a napkin to represent his target and asking: “This is the target. How will it die?” Former Attorney General Pamela Bondi said of the verdict: “This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement.”
The Man Who Threatened Trump — And His Swift Elimination
As U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran intensified, the threat against Trump became explicit. Ali Larijani, then-head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the most powerful figures in the Islamic Republic’s clerical regime, threatened the president with assassination in a post on X, writing: “The freedom-loving nation of Iran is not afraid of your hollow threats. Even those who were mightier than you have failed to destroy the Iranian nation. Watch yourself — or you’ll be eliminated.”
The message was signed by the Supreme National Security Council and referenced the recent killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who died on February 28 — the opening day of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. Larijani had also vowed on national television to hold Trump personally responsible for the supreme leader’s death. Trump brushed off the threat in an interview with CBS News, saying he “couldn’t care less.”
One week later, Larijani was dead. Israel announced that it had killed him alongside Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Basij militia. Iranian authorities confirmed both deaths. The man who had most publicly threatened to eliminate Trump had himself been eliminated — a sequence that illustrated, with grim precision, exactly what Trump meant when he said those who came for him would be obliterated.
Years of Iranian Plotting and Documented Threats
Trump’s assassination contingency order did not emerge from nowhere. It was the product of years of documented Iranian plotting against his life — a campaign that traces directly to January 2020, when Trump ordered the drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force. Top Iranian officials have said publicly and repeatedly since then that they want revenge, and that Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are targets.
Trump’s security team has taken those threats seriously for years. After an assassination attempt on Trump in Florida in 2024 — which was not linked to Iran — his detail was so concerned about the Iranian threat that it had Trump travel to an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff. The Justice Department has documented multiple alleged Iranian plots against Trump and other former officials, including a scheme targeting former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
The strikes did not stop at Larijani. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the leader of the Iranian unit behind a prior assassination attempt on Trump had also been killed in U.S. military strikes. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth announced. Trump addressed the killing directly, saying: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first.” Though Hegseth did not name the individual, Israeli reporter Amit Segal identified him as Rahman Mokadam, the head of the IRGC’s special operations division.
A Fragile Ceasefire Under Strain
The war itself has since entered a tense and unstable pause. Trump announced a two-week ceasefire after Iran agreed to allow safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The deal, brokered with Pakistan’s assistance, was presented by the White House as a step toward broader negotiations. Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to Islamabad to hold direct talks with Iranian representatives.
The ceasefire has since come under severe strain. Iran has been accused of charging fees to tankers transiting the Strait — a violation, in Trump’s view, of the terms they agreed to. Trump declared the ceasefire “on massive life support” after rejecting Tehran’s latest counterproposal as “totally unacceptable.” U.S. aides say Trump is now more seriously considering a resumption of major combat operations than at any point since the pause began.
Which brings the story back to where it began: a president who left standing instructions for a country’s obliteration if anyone came for him, and a country that kept trying anyway. The officials who threatened him publicly are dead. The operative sent to kill him has been convicted. The war those instructions foreshadowed is now underway. Whether it ends in negotiation or escalation, Trump’s February 2025 warning has ceased to be a deterrent — and become, instead, a description of what has already happened.