US President Donald Trump on Wednesday laughed off a threat by an Iranian official suggesting he could be attacked with drones while sunning himself at his Florida mansion, telling a bemused press corps he had not sunbathed since childhood.
“Trump has done something so that he can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago," Mohammad-Javad Larijani, a former senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader had told Iranian state TV in remarks first reported in the English language media by Iran International.
"As he lies there with his stomach to the sun, a small drone might hit him in the navel. It’s very simple,” added Larijani, whose two brothers are among the Islamic Republic’s most powerful political figures.
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy read the comments to Trump at a press conference, adding, "Do you think that's a real threat? And when is the last time you went sunbathing anyway?"
Trump, smiling, retorted: "It's been a long time. I don't know, maybe I was around seven or so. I'm not too big into it. Yeah, I guess it's a threat. I'm not sure it's a threat actually, but perhaps it is."
Iranian clerics have previously called on Muslims to kill Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in retaliation for their threats on the life of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during the conflict.
US forces attacked three Iranian nuclear sites in a bid to disable Tehran's disputed program days after Trump said Washington was well aware of where Khamenei was sheltering during the war.
Larijani's comments came after an online platform calling itself "blood pact" began raising funds for what it calls “retribution against those who mock and threaten the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.” The site says to have collected over $40 million to date.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the figure.
Bounty for Trump’s head
“We pledge to award the bounty to anyone who can bring the enemies of God and those who threaten the life of Ali Khamenei to justice,” a statement on the site said.
The campaign's stated aim is to raise $100 million for the killing of Donald Trump. It remains unclear who operates the site.
However, Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported the launch of the Blood Pact initiative and called on religious groups in Iran and abroad to rally in front of Western embassies and central squares to express support for Khamenei.
The outlet also urged the application of “Islamic rulings on moharebeh” against both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the Iranian legal system, moharebeh—literally “waging war against God”—is punishable by death.
President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance his government from the campaign, telling US commentator Tucker Carlson on Monday that “the fatwa of warfare has nothing to do with the Iranian government or the Supreme Leader.”
But Kayhan newspaper, overseen by a representative of Khamenei, dismissed the president's remark.
“This is not an academic opinion. It is a clear religious ruling in defense of faith, sanctities and especially the guardianship of the jurist,” it wrote in a Tuesday editorial, referring to Iran's system of clerical rule.
Any future “fire-starter” would face retaliation, the newspaper added concluding that “The Islamic Republic will drown Israel in blood.”
Former lawmaker Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imenabadi earlier condemned Kayhan’s position, saying: “I can’t believe Kayhan’s editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari is Iranian ... saying Trump should be assassinated will bring the cost down on the people.”
In response, Kayhan wrote: “Today, avenging Trump is nearly a national demand. It is Imenabadi’s words that are out of step with Iranian values."
Trump has been a target for assassination threats since he ordered the 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.
Last year, US law enforcement accused the IRGC of organizing a plot to kill Trump in retaliation for his order to assassinate Soleimani.
