Donald Trump threatened Iran with “1000 Missiles” on Saturday after the funeral of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saw mourners openly calling for the US president’s assassination.
“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He added that the US military would “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran, PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”
The threat came after days of US airstrikes targeting Iran and Iranian retaliatory fire against American bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan. The immediate trigger was an Iranian attack on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, which prompted the US to strike roughly 140 targets inside Iran.
Trump cited threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei’s dayslong funeral, mourners carried posters and banners calling for Trump to be killed, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Khamenei, 86, was killed in the opening US-Israeli airstrike on February 28 that started the war.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has previously criticized Trump’s “deranged mocking of Islam” for his repeated use of Arabic religious phrases while threatening to destroy Iran.
Behind the rhetoric is a concrete standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. Senior US officials have demanded that Iran make a public statement declaring the waterway open and guaranteeing that ships will not be attacked. Tehran has refused, insisting that the strait remains under Iranian control and that vessels must pay fees to transit, upending decades of precedent treating it as an international waterway.
US officials also linked any future nuclear deal to Iran first halting attacks on ships in the strait. They are demanding Iran turn over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is near weapons-grade. Iran has repeatedly refused, insisting its nuclear program is peaceful. The IAEA has noted that Iran is the only country enriching uranium to such high levels without a weapons program.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States of violating the interim deal by ending waivers that allowed Iran to sell crude oil in dollars. “Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” he wrote on X.
The ceasefire that halted the war in June is visibly buckling. Trump declared it “over” earlier this week. Hundreds of missiles are, as Trump put it, “locked and loaded.” Whether either side is bluffing may be answered in the coming days.