Trump warns Iran of decimation if assassination threat is carried out

Donald Trump threatened to “decimate and destroy” Iran if Tehran carried out an assassination attempt against him, while the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on alleged Iranian financier Azhar Sukri. The warning and the financial action landed together, turning a narrow security threat into a wider show of force.

Trump used Truth Social to amplify the message, writing that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded” and claiming the military was ready for up to one year to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.” The language sharpened an already volatile exchange between Washington and Tehran and put public deterrence at the center of the administration’s response.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control listed the July 10 action under the title “Treasury Targets Key Supreme Leader Financier and Iran’s Shadow Exchange Houses.” The package also included Iran-related and counterterrorism designations and an Iran-related general license, underscoring that the response was not limited to rhetoric but extended to the financial system Iran uses to move money and support sanctioned networks.

The move came as tensions around the ceasefire with Iran remained unstable after renewed clashes. Trump had already said the ceasefire was over after fresh fighting, and the latest sanctions followed revocations and new licensing steps from July 7 that showed Washington adjusting the sanctions regime as the confrontation evolved.

At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Oman for talks, and Tehran called the new U.S. financial measure a violation of the preliminary deal the two sides struck last month. That left diplomacy and coercion running in parallel, with the sanctions package landing just as negotiators tried to keep a fragile channel open.

The backdrop was an accusation that Israel had shared intelligence on an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, and public displays in Iran added to the pressure. Mourners at the July 9 funeral in Mashhad carried banners reading “We Will Kill Trump,” while Mojtaba Khamenei, the son and successor of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on X that revenge was demanded for those killed in U.S. strikes.

The sequence pointed to a harder public posture from Washington, built on sanctions, military threats and highly visible messaging, even as the underlying confrontation with Iran remained unsettled.