Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he hopes the U.S. "obliterates Iran" in a post quoting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Trump suggested Iran's approximately 88.55 million citizens should die if an Iranian plot to assassinate him — first revealed to the public earlier this month and denied by Irani officials — prove successful. "If they do 'assassinate President Trump,' which is always a possibility, I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth," Trump wrote. "If that does not happen, American Leaders will be considered 'gutless' cowards!" Trump also shared a clip from Netanyahu's congressional address Wednesday during which he said, "they brazenly threatened to assassinate President Trump." In the same speech, Netanyahu scolded protesters outside as "Iran's useful idiots," claiming without evidence the nation was funding anti-Israel protests. EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s ‘secretary of retribution’ has a ‘target list’ of 350 people he wants arrested A national security official told CNN on July 16 that the Secret Service was made aware of an Iranian threat before the July 13 rally when a 20-year-old with an AR-style rifle attempted to assassinate Trump. The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations denied such a plot in a comment to CNN. “These accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious," a spokesperson told CNN. "From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law." The spokesperson referenced Qasem Soleimani, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander killed by a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020, CNN reports. "Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice,” the spokesperson said. Trump's threat arrived as Iranian officials openly threaten to build a nuclear weapon. According to the Associated Press, "Iran resumed progress on its nuclear program after the Trump administration ended U.S. cooperation with a 2015 deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for allowing tougher oversight of the program." Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April, the Associated Press reports. Trump's comment was swiftly condemned by readers. "This is a bad man who is engaging in incitement to war crimes," replied the educational platform History Speaks on X. "No, we shouldn't 'obliterate Iran' or 'wipe it off the face of the earth' if they kill a former US President, although of course that would be an act of war. Trump has often promoted war crimes in his rhetoric." "This is completely unhinged, do you understand that?" wrote a user on Trump Media's Truth Social platform. "We can't have a world leader who talks like this. He sounds like Kim Jong Un threatening to nuke California and we just laugh at him because we know he'll never do it."

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