Iran’s Supreme Leader vowed revenge on Donald Trump in a video released by his office, which depicts the former president being assassinated by an airstrike.
The office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published a video titled “Revenge is Definite” on Thursday. The animated footage showed a spy plane watching a MAGA hat wearing Trump playing a round of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort with a small group.
A drone strike is called in, and just before the missiles drop, Trump and what looks like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, gets a text message that reads: “Solemani’s murderer and the one who gave the order will pay the price.”
The video was released just after the second anniversary of the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by an airstrike Trump ordered on Jan. 3, 2020.
The clip was posted on Twitter by an account linked to Khamenei, which was permanently suspended for violating the company’s “ban evasion policy” on Saturday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the video was the kind of “offensive rhetoric and behavior” that they’ve seen from the Supreme Leader in the past, but denied to answer if the Biden administration was working with Trump to offer protection.
In a response later that day, Biden’s National Security advisor told the press that Americans “have our disagreements on politics,” but are “united in the defense of our people.”
“The United States will protect and defend its citizens,” said NSA Jake Sullivan. “This includes those serving the United States now and those who formerly served.”
The Secret Service isn’t taking the video lightly, but would not release details about how they planned to keep Trump safe. “The U.S. Secret Service takes all threats to our protectees seriously,” said an agency spokesperson Justine Whelan.
“In order to maintain operation security,” Whelan noted, “the Secret Service does not discuss the means and methods used to conduct our protective operations or matters of protective intelligence.”