An Iranian movement has reportedly raised more than $40 million for the assassination of President Donald Trump, as the country’s senior religious clerics make clear that “every cell of the resistance in the West is charged with carrying out this sentence.”
Iranian leaders recently issued two death warrants, or fatwas, against Trump and deemed him an “enemy of Allah” who must be killed. Those calls prompted the creation of a new organization dubbed the “Blood Covenant,” which claims to have raised nearly $40.3 million for the president’s assassination, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The Blood Covenant operates “under the aegis of the Iranian regime” and poses a substantial threat to Trump given Tehran’s resources and coordination on the matter, according to MEMRI, which monitors jihadi movements in the region.
“The fact that these calls to assassinate Trump are coming from above and being echoed in the street and through all strata of society, including in the Iranian media, underlines the depth and uniformity of the regime’s institutional incitement,” MEMRI wrote in its analysis. “It reflects a broad religious and regime consensus strengthened by reiterated emphasis of the reward anyone carrying out the punishment against Trump can expect to receive—in addition to the $40.3 million, also Paradise and the status of a defender of Islam.”
The Blood Covenant movement began on July 4 with the mission of defending “the jurisprudent leader,” Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The state-controlled Fars News Agency, an affiliate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, initially broadcast the “Blood Covenant” message.
A senior State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon that the Trump administration is aware of these threats and is committed to “hold[ing] bad actors accountable.”
“This means using every tool at our disposal, including sanctions, to implement the president’s maximum pressure strategy,” the senior official continued.
The Blood Covenant published a poster on its website—which the Fars News Agency republished—depicting Trump in crosshairs and an award of up to $40 million for his assassination.
“Strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah [jihad],” the poster reads, quoting a verse in the Quran.
An English-language caption reads: “We pledge to award the prize to whoever can bring the militants and those who threaten the life of the Deputy of Imam Mahdi (may our souls be sacrificed for him) to justice for their actions. THIS CAMPAIN [sic] IS NOT FUNDING TERRORISM IT IS FUNDING THE FIGHT AGAINST US STATE TERRORISM.”
The website, registered to a domain inside the Islamic Republic, urged supporters to “bring this criminal Trump to justice” for his alleged threats against Khamenei.
“I am satisfied with all my being and I will pay this amount with all my heart to someone who will bring this criminal Trump to justice for his actions so that it will be a lesson to those who threaten my dear leader, and know that we will sacrifice our lives for this path for my dear leader,” one message on the site reads, among other notes.
The assassination edicts primarily target “the younger generation of Muslims worldwide, exhorting them to act against Trump right now,” MEMRI wrote. “The struggle is depicted not as a political clash but as an all-out religious war between Islam and the ‘leader of apostasy’ and the ‘enemy of Islam,’ and between the messengers of Allah and the enemies of Allah.”
Iran’s state broadcasting authority published a July 3 interview with Quranic expert Abdolmajid Kharqani in which he acknowledged that an “online campaign has been launched to fund the killing of Trump” and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There is an online fundraising campaign for the assassination of Trump and Netanyahu, and the sum collected is between $10 million and $20 million,” Kharqani said in the interview, according to a translation performed by MEMRI. “This is so that whoever carries out this mission can kill these two individuals so that nobody in Iran will be harmed any more. The scene must be made unsafe for them. Islamic law determines that the leaders of unbelief must be killed. This is a religious obligation incumbent upon every Muslim.”
Iranian religious figures at the Howza-e Ilmiyya Seminary offered support for the two death fatwas on Trump, saying on July 2 that the president’s “blood is permitted.”
Another religious lecturer at the seminary, Amin Asadpour, declared Trump and Netanyahu the enemies of Muslims worldwide and their deaths permissible.
“All the cells of the resistance, all the Muslims in the Islamic world, and even those in the Western countries are obligated to implement the ruling concerning muharebs against Netanyahu, against the plundering State of Israel, against U.S. President [Donald Trump], and against the U.S. government,” Asadpour said in a July 1 speech translated by MEMRI.
Gabriel Noronha, a former State Department adviser on Iran policy, told the Free Beacon that the bounty on Trump’s head calls for a swift and decisive response from the United States.
“I hope the Trump administration doesn’t let this dangerous rhetoric go unchallenged like Biden did,” he said. “Threats to President Trump and his team should be taken seriously and addressed in kind. The appropriate response would be to close the Iranian Interests Section in Washington, D.C., or consider kinetic action against the regime’s military headquarters.”
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