In an unprecedented and chilling escalation, Iran’s theocratic regime has issued a religious decree—an official fatwa—calling for the assassination of President Donald J. Trump, marking the first time in modern history that a sovereign state has openly called for the murder of a sitting or former U.S. president.
The fatwa, issued by Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi—one of the most powerful clerics in Iran—goes beyond rhetoric. It is a state-sanctioned religious edict that legally and spiritually obligates followers to act. The cleric labeled Trump a mohareb—an “enemy of God”—a designation in Iran’s religious code that carries a death sentence and presents the killer as a divinely rewarded martyr.
This was no fringe statement. Shirazi holds an official and senior status in Iran’s religious-political structure, and the call was echoed by government-linked operatives. Notably, Mansour Emami, the regime-appointed head of the Islamic Propagation Organization in West Azerbaijan Province, publicly offered a reward of 100 billion tomans—over $1.14 million—to anyone who “brings the head of Trump.”
Beyond the bounty, reports from inside Iran indicate a staggering $40 million has already been raised in a crowdfunding campaign aimed at funding Trump’s assassination. These funds are being solicited and collected publicly, adding weight and legitimacy to the regime’s intent.
This action bears a disturbing resemblance to the infamous 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against author Salman Rushdie. That fatwa, once dismissed as symbolic, eventually led to a brutal stabbing attack on Rushdie in 2022—decades later. The echoes are unmistakable, and the warning is clear.
In a statement prior to the fatwa, Trump revealed that during a prior military operation he had precise intelligence on the whereabouts of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Trump said he chose not to strike, sparing Khamenei from “a very ugly and ignominious death.” That gesture of restraint was returned with a multimillion-dollar bounty on his life.
