Iranian propaganda has crossed another sinister line — this time placing First Lady Melania Trump and her 20-year-old son, Barron, in its crosshairs.
Tasnim News Agency, an outlet closely associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, released a disturbing video Monday encouraging attacks against the president’s wife and threatening that Barron could be next.
The roughly two-minute clip opens with a bloody image of Melania alongside the words, “Where to Kill Melania?!” It then purports to track her movements through New York City, displaying footage of her motorcade and making claims about her security arrangements and personal routines, according to The Times.
The video calls on supporters of the Islamic Republic and so-called “global freedom fighters” to take action against the First Lady.
It closes with an even more chilling warning: “This is just the beginning. Barron Trump, wait for us.”
Russian state television outlet RT helped spread the propaganda on social media, claiming that the video revealed routes and routines using information obtained from “anonymous security networks,” Mediaite reported.
Much of the material, however, appears to have been compiled from publicly available information and wrapped in menacing graphics intended to make the threat appear more sophisticated.
The Secret Service confirmed Tuesday that it is examining the video.
Nate Herring, an agency spokesman, told Newsweek that the Secret Service investigates “anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees.”
“Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence,” Herring added, according to The Independent.
Both Melania and Barron receive full-time Secret Service protection, and the Trump family’s residences are heavily secured, according to the New York Post.
Neither the White House nor the First Lady’s office had publicly responded to the video as of Tuesday morning.
Fox News host Mark Levin condemned the clip after it began circulating online.
“The Iranian regime continues to threaten the assassination of Trump family members,” Levin wrote.
The threat is not an isolated piece of Tehran’s increasingly grotesque propaganda campaign.
Days earlier, billboards appeared along a highway in Tehran depicting fabricated images of Melania, Barron and Ivanka Trump as corpses. The word “KILLED” was splashed across the images alongside the warning, “Hey, terrorist! Get ready to die.”
Another display placed portraits of President Trump, his wife and all five of his children above American flag-draped coffins under the message “Blood for Blood.” Other regime-linked artwork has depicted Trump dead or staring down the sights of a rifle, the Post reported.
Some Iranian propaganda has veered into the bizarre, including AI-generated videos featuring Lego-like versions of Trump and other world leaders. But the regime’s history of pursuing assassination plots on American soil means its latest threat cannot be dismissed as another crude cartoon.
In March, a federal jury convicted Asif Merchant, an Iranian intelligence operative who entered the United States to arrange political assassinations on behalf of the IRGC.
Merchant contacted people he believed could serve as hired killers, discussed possible attacks and paid a $5,000 advance before being arrested. The supposed hitmen were undercover law enforcement officers.
The Justice Department said Merchant understood that Trump could be the eventual target of the plot, which was intended to avenge the 2020 killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.
“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said following Merchant’s conviction, according to the Justice Department.
Trump has said Iran considers him its top target and has publicly warned Tehran that any attempt on his life would trigger overwhelming retaliation.
“I’m the No. 1, because they’re scum,” Trump told reporters earlier this month. “That’s the way they act.”
The president later wrote that the U.S. military had received orders to “completely decimate and destroy” Iran if the regime attempted to assassinate him.
The latest threat emerged as Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the Iran war and possible negotiations with Tehran.
Even as Trump considers giving diplomacy another chance, the Iranian regime appears determined to send a different message — one aimed directly at his family.
