The US Secret Service has confirmed it is aware that Iranian state media has aired a video that appears to threaten the life of Barron Trump, President Donald Trump's youngest son.
CNN previously reported that the Secret Service was aware of the threat against Barron Trump.
"The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees," Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press.
"Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence," the statement added.
Since the assassination of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian media have on multiple occasions circulated content threatening the US President and members of his family. The assassination of Ali Khamenei came on February 28, the first day of the war in Iran that Trump launched alongside Israel. Some of the videos have included movement details and suggestions for killing members of the Trump family.
According to a federal law enforcement source quoted by CNN, the video of Barron Trump is part of the same campaign of videos from Iran targeting Trump and his family
{{/usCountry}}According to a federal law enforcement source quoted by CNN, the video of Barron Trump is part of the same campaign of videos from Iran targeting Trump and his family
{{/usCountry}}What is in the video
According to the CNN report, the nearly three-minute video begins with an English language graphic reading: “Where to kill Barron Trump?!,” and features stylised graphics showing locations where the younger Trump is publicly known to spend time, including Trump Tower in New York.
Towards the end of the video, the narrator suggested people were “eagerly waiting to receive our $10 million reward.”
The video was broadcast over the weekend by the Iranian broadcaster IRIB, a state media outlet considered aligned with hardliners in the Iranian regime. The head of the broadcaster is directly appointed by Iran’s supreme leader.
When Trump said he was on Iranian kill list
Donald Trump has publicly discussed the Iranian threats to his life at the NATO summit in Turkey in July. This happened before he secretly slipped out of the country on an alternate military plane, which he boarded while hidden inside a catering truck, as part of an elaborate ruse prompted by an Iranian threat.
“I’m on whatever list… so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long. These are evil, sick people," he had said at the time.
The threat to Trump involved a shoulder-fired missile and was a specific enough threat that officials feared his life would be at enormous risk if he flew on either version of Air Force One, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The US government has been claiming that Iran may try to kill Trump ever since the 2020 drone strike he ordered, which killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
During the days-long funeral events for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in July, regime loyalists were seen holding posters with the words “Kill Trump” and offering a bounty for whoever avenged their leader’s death.
Anti-American displays, including chants of “Death to America” and flag burnings, have been a constant of state-organised rallies in Iran since the Islamic Revolution brought the theocratic regime to power in 1979.