• What Happened: Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani directly threatened President Trump on X Tuesday, telling him to "watch out for yourself, lest you be eliminated."
  • Why It Matters: Trump had warned Iran it would be hit "twenty times harder" if it blocked Strait of Hormuz oil flow, with Hegseth calling Tuesday the most intense day of strikes yet.
  • Bottom Line: Iran is losing the war in the air and threatening the president on social media.

A regime that has lost its supreme leader, its navy, and thousands of military targets in ten days of American airpower just threatened to eliminate the President of the United States. On social media.

Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and one of the most powerful figures left standing after the U.S.-Israeli campaign killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, took to X on Tuesday to respond to President Trump's latest warning. Trump had posted on Truth Social that if Iran did anything to stop oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, the United States would hit them "TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far," adding that "Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them."

Larijani's response was direct. "The nation of Iran does not fear your paper threats," he wrote. "Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Watch out for yourself, lest you be eliminated."

It was not the first time. On Saturday, Larijani warned Trump he would "pay the price" for the strikes that have dismantled Iran's military command structure. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately told PBS News Tuesday that his country was "well prepared to continue attacking them with our missiles as long as needed and as long as it takes," while ruling out any negotiations with Washington. "I don't think talking with Americans anymore would be on our agenda," Araghchi said.

The defiance is coming from a regime that is running out of things to be defiant with.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reiterated Trump's Hormuz warning at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday, calling it the most intense day of strikes yet. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine did not rule out U.S. military escorts for oil tankers through the chokepoint when asked. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser confirmed tankers are already being rerouted to avoid the strait, with the East-West pipeline being pushed to full capacity of 7 million barrels a day to compensate.

Oil prices spiked to $119 a barrel before easing on Trump's earlier comments that the war would end "very soon."

A regime that cannot protect its own supreme leader is now threatening the American president on X. Trump's response was characteristically precise: twenty times harder, death, fire, and fury.

Iran should read that again.