Trump threatens to blow Iran 'to smithereens' if candidates face threats from Tehran

​​​​​​​By Servet Gunerigok

WASHINGTON (AA) - Former US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that if he were president and a presidential candidate faced threats from Tehran, he would blow Iran and its cities "to smithereens".

"But if I were the president, I would inform the threatening country -- in this case, Iran -- that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We are going to blow it to smithereens," he said at a rally in the state of North Carolina.

"And there would be no more threats," he added.

Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, said earlier that he received threats to his life from Iran.

“Big threats on my life by Iran. Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again,” he said on his Truth Social platform. He also said the entire US military is “watching and waiting.”

Trump was briefed Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on what officials described as “real and specific threats” from Iran to assassinate him to destabilize the US, his campaign said late Tuesday.