Iranian State TV Appeared To Threaten Barron Trump. The Secret Service Says It Is Investigating

The U.S. Secret Service says it is investigating a video aired by Iranian state television that appeared to threaten the life of Barron Trump, the youngest son of President Donald Trump.

Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring told CNN that the agency was aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat against people under its protection. The agency declined to discuss details of its protective intelligence work.

Iran's state broadcaster IRIB aired the nearly three-minute video over the weekend, using an English-language graphic that explicitly referred to killing Barron Trump and showing publicly known locations associated with him, according to CNN.

The threat follows months of increasingly hostile rhetoric from Iranian hardline media after former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike on Feb. 28. Reuters reported that Iranian officials repeatedly threatened retaliation during the events surrounding Khamenei's funeral, while crowds at later ceremonies chanted against Trump and called for revenge.

CNN noted that Iranian media had previously aired material threatening Trump and first lady Melania Trump, but the latest broadcast appears to be the first to publicly single out Barron. A federal law enforcement source told the network that the video was part of a broader stream of Iranian material targeting members of the Trump family.

U.S. authorities have dealt with Iranian assassination plots before. In March, a federal jury convicted Iranian intelligence operative Asif Merchant of murder-for-hire and terrorism-related charges after prosecutors said he traveled to the U.S. to arrange political assassinations on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Justice Department said the planned killings were intended in part as retaliation for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

Another IRGC member was charged in 2022 with attempting to arrange the murder of former national security adviser John Bolton, also in alleged retaliation for Soleimani's death, according to the Justice Department.

Trump has also publicly discussed threats against his own life. CNN reported earlier this month that security officials changed his travel arrangements after receiving specific intelligence about a possible Iranian attack during a trip to Turkey.

The latest threat comes as tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high. Reuters reported last week that Iran had warned of a "devastating" response to new U.S. sanctions as the nearly six-month conflict continued.