Senior Iranian official claims Tehran could assassinate Trump ‘while he sunbathes in Mar-a-Lago’

An Iranian official has suggested that Donald Trump could be attacked by Tehran while sunbathing at his Mar-a-Lago mansion.

In an interview with Iranian state television, former senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Mohammad-Javad Larijani suggested the US President could be attacked with a drone while at his Florida estate.

“Trump has done something so that he can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago," Mr Larijani said, according to London-based outlet 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.”

open image in gallery

Later in an interview on Fox News, the remarks were put to Trump, who laughed off the apparent threat.

Host Peter Doocy asked the president when he last went sunbathing.

A smiling Trump replied: “It’s been a long time. I don’t know, maybe I was around seven or so. I’m not too big into it.”

He added: “I guess it’s a threat. I’m sure it’s not a threat, actually, but perhaps it is.”

The exchange comes two weeks after the U.S. dramatically intervened in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran by bombing Tehran’s three nuclear facilities.

Visiting the White House this week, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for assisting Israel in its campaign against Iran.

Trump has repeatedly declared that the U.S. bombing of three of Iran's nuclear sites had "obliterated" them, though some experts have questioned the extent of the damage and raised the possibility that Iran had secreted away part of its enriched uranium stockpile before the strikes.

An Israeli official said intelligence indicated that Iran's enriched uranium remained at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the sites that the U.S. hit last month, and had not been moved.

open image in gallery

Talks between Washington and Tehran are set to resume in Norway this week, and on Monday Trump said he would like to lift sanctions on Iran at some point.

In an eye-catching post on X suggesting Tehran sees economic ties as a potential element in any deal, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei believed American investors can come to Iran with "no obstacles to their activities".

But Pezeshkian said trust would be an issue going forward in the relationship between the two countries in an interview on the weekend with Tucker Carlson.

Trump has repeatedly threatened further strikes on Iran if Khamenei does not end the country’s nuclear enrichment program.

With additional reporting from Reuters