Trump says ‘destroy Iran’ if he's assassinated, JD Vance would decide US response

Washington: President Donald Trump has indicated that he has left standing orders for the US military to destroy Iran "at levels they've never seen before" if Tehran follows through on its long-standing threats to kill him.

However, constitutional experts note that the United States has no legal mechanism for an automatic or pre-authorised military retaliation triggered by the death of a president.

If such an event were to occur, presidential powers would immediately pass to Vice President JD Vance under the 25th Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. As the new commander-in-chief, Vance would have the authority to decide whether to carry out any military response. While he could follow Trump's reported instructions, he would also have the discretion to adopt a different course of action.

"The US has, for a whole variety of reasons, never utilised a technical dead man's switch," said Garrett M. Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die.

Although the US maintains extensive continuity-of-government plans to deal with catastrophic events such as a nuclear attack or a large-scale assault on Washington, those plans do not authorise automatic retaliatory strikes following the death of a president, even if such directions had been issued beforehand.

Trump wrote on his social media platform on Saturday that Iran had threatened "to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate" him. He claimed that 1,000 missiles were "Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat."

Iran reiterates threats against Trump

Hours later, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed that Iran would continue to seek revenge for the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died during the initial US-Israeli strikes that triggered the conflict earlier this year.

"We pledge to take revenge for the pure blood of you and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraceful killers," he said in remarks aired on state television. "This revenge is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out."

The White House has not responded to questions about whether Trump's reported military directives would remain valid if he were assassinated.

During Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral events this week, mourners were seen carrying banners calling for the deaths of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Israel recently alerted US officials about fresh Iranian plots targeting Trump. While the White House declined to comment on the report, Trump appeared to reference those threats during this week's NATO summit in Turkey, saying, "They want to take out the US leader- me."

Former Biden administration deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said, "Iran wanting to target senior American leaders is something that we know is happening."

"You have to take these as credible threats," Singh said.

Security concerns persist amid assassination threats

Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 presidential campaign and faced another security scare in April when an armed man entered the White House Correspondents' Association dinner he was attending.

This week, Trump also travelled part of the way back to Washington from Turkey aboard an older Air Force One aircraft instead of the recently retrofitted Qatar-gifted jet, prompting renewed questions about security. Reports indicate the newer aircraft, upgraded at an estimated cost of USD 400 million, lacks some of the missile detection and countermeasure systems installed on older presidential aircraft.

(With agency inputs)