A newspaper owned by Iran’s capital city government published an Iran hit list late Saturday: an AI-generated image naming President Donald Trump and twelve other Western and Israeli leaders as assassination targets. The graphic shows Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with rifle-scope crosshairs over their foreheads. Eleven more officials, including two members of Trump’s own cabinet, appear below them in orange prison uniforms.
Who published the Iran hit list, and why now?
Hamshahri, a newspaper owned by the Tehran municipal government, posted the published graphic on its website, not its print edition. The image ran beside a statement from Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s acting supreme leader, marking his first public message since his father’s funeral. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed February 28 in the U.S.-Israeli strike that opened the current ongoing war. Mojtaba’s statement called revenge “the will of our nation.” No Iranian government body has officially endorsed the list. That distinction matters: a state-owned newspaper publishing a threat is not the same as an official declaration of policy, and this article treats them as separate facts.
Who else is on the list besides Trump?
The full graphic names 13 officials. Alongside Trump and Netanyahu: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. On the Israeli side: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. Rounding out the list are four European leaders, part of the broader foreign policy fallout from the war: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. This is the second such image Hamshahri has run; an earlier version, published roughly two weeks prior, showed only Trump.
Is there a real assassination plot, or just a threatening image?
The image is confirmed and independently verified; the specific assassination plot against President Trump is not. Multiple outlets have verified the graphic’s content. Separately, an Israeli intelligence report described a new Iranian plan to kill the U.S. leader. Some U.S. officials were not able to independently vet that claim, and viewed it as possibly intended to influence Trump’s decisions on further military action against Iran. Treat the graphic as documented. Treat the “specific plot” as reported, not proven.
What did President Donald Trump say about being a part of the Iran hit list?
Trump has addressed the threat directly, more than once, in his own words. At the NATO summit in Turkey, he told reporters he believes he is on every list Iran keeps. In an interview with the New York Post, he said he has left standing orders for the U.S. military to respond overwhelmingly if Iran succeeds. In his Truth Social post, President Trump wrote that missiles are already aimed at Iran and ready to fire should the regime act on the threat.
The President has also said he doesn’t believe the new intelligence points to a fresh plot, arguing instead that Iran has wanted him dead since the 2020 strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
Is this part of a bigger escalation?
Yes, the Iran hit list did not happen in isolation. The image surfaced the same weekend Trump declared a prior ceasefire with Iran “over,” after Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. forces have struck close to 300 military targets across Iran over three nights since. Iranian state media has separately reported on funeral crowds chanting for Trump’s death.
Some outlets report Iran’s parliament is weighing a bill to offer a reward for the assassination of American and Israeli officials. None of the escalation reporting above is confirmed at the level the graphic itself is; BNA will update this piece as documentation becomes available.
Researched and fact-checked by the BreakingNewsAlerts.com editorial team. Primary documents and named officials cited where available. Claims based solely on unverified intelligence reporting are labeled as such. See our editorial standards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Hamshahri, the newspaper that published the list?
Hamshahri is owned by the Tehran municipal government. It is not Iran’s state broadcaster, but it is a government-adjacent outlet with a history of provocative front pages.
Is the assassination plot against Trump officially confirmed?
No. A report describes Israeli intelligence shared with the U.S., but U.S. officials say they have not independently verified it. The published image, separately, is confirmed and verified across multiple outlets.
Who else is named on Iran’s hit list besides Trump?
Aside from President Donald Trump, twelve other world leaders were mentioned in the list. It includes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, U.S. Central Command commander Brad Cooper, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. On the Israeli side: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. Rounding out the list are four European leaders, part of the broader foreign policy fallout from the war: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Has the U.S. government officially responded to the threat?
No separate White House or Pentagon statement has been issued as of this writing. However, President Trump responded personally and repeatedly to the threat. This includes a Truth Social post warning of a massive military response if Iran acts on the threat.
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