Trump Tells New York Post He Left Standing Orders to Bomb Iran at Unprecedented Scale If Assassinated

President Trump told the New York Post on Friday that he has left standing instructions for the US military to bomb Iran "at levels that they've never seen before" if Tehran succeeds in assassinating him, specifying the military is ready for a one-year period, subject to extension, to "completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran" 1. Trump said he has been Iran's top assassination target "for a long time" and characterized the threat as a longstanding fact of life rather than a new development, disputing a Wall Street Journal report that Israel had shared intelligence on a specific new Iranian plot 12. The Washington Post reported that operational authority over any such order would in fact pass to Vice President Vance under the 25th Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act, and that the government has no mechanism to create an automatic "dead man's switch" retaliatory strike 3. The comments follow Trump's declaration this week that the Iran ceasefire is over after Iranian forces fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iranian mourning gatherings for late Supreme Leader Khamenei continue to feature public calls for Trump's death 14.