Trump threatens Iran, but successor would control any response
Trump said missiles were ready if Iran tried to kill him, while experts said any retaliation after his death would fall to JD Vance.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
3 min read
President Donald Trump said the U.S. military was prepared to strike Iran if Tehran tried to assassinate him, the Associated Press reported. The warning raised a constitutional question: any decision after Trump’s death would pass to Vice President JD Vance, not to an automatic military trigger.
Trump wrote Saturday on his social media platform that Iran had threatened “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him, according to the AP. He said 1,000 missiles were aimed at Iran, with thousands more ready to follow if Iran acted on the threat.
The AP reported that U.S. law does not provide for a preapproved “dead man’s switch” that would launch immediate retaliation after a president is killed. Under the 25th Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, Vance would become commander in chief at once and would control any U.S. response.
Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die,” told the AP that the United States has not used a technical dead man’s switch for “a whole variety of reasons.” Graff said Trump may be describing standing instructions to the Pentagon, though he questioned whether such orders would be legal once presidential authority transferred to a successor.
The White House did not immediately answer AP questions Saturday about what would happen to Trump’s military orders if he were killed. The AP reported that Vance could follow Trump’s stated preference, reject it or choose a different form of response.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, responded hours after Trump’s post by saying Iranians would continue seeking revenge for the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to remarks aired on Iranian state television and reported by the AP. The elder Khamenei died in initial U.S. and Israeli strikes that began the war in late February, the AP reported.
During funeral events in Iran this week, mourners displayed posters and banners calling for Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be killed, according to AP reporting. Khamenei said revenge “must certainly be carried out,” according to the state television remarks cited by the AP.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Israel had warned U.S. officials about new Iranian plots targeting Trump. The White House declined to comment, the AP reported, while Trump appeared to refer to the threat during a NATO summit in Turkey, saying Iran wanted to “take out the U.S. leader — me.”
Sabrina Singh, a former Biden administration deputy Pentagon press secretary, told the AP that threats from Iran against senior American officials are known to U.S. authorities. She said such threats have to be treated as credible.
The AP reported that Trump has faced multiple security threats in recent years, including two domestic assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign and a gunman who stormed a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner he attended in April. Trump also told reporters aboard Air Force One this week that he was “No. 1” on Iran’s list, according to the AP.
Earlier U.S. administrations also warned Iran against attacks on American officials, the AP reported. In 2022, then-national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Iran would face severe consequences if it attacked U.S. citizens, after the Justice Department disclosed an alleged plot against former Trump adviser John Bolton.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.