O'Donnell Claims Trump Wants Vance To 'Kill Everyone In Iran' if They Assassinate Him

Siena Do
July 14th, 2026 8:03 PM

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Last Friday, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had given orders to the U.S. Military to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran” if he’s assassinated, which Iran has threatened to do many times. On Monday’s episode of MS NOW’s The Last Word, host Lawrence O’Donnell spun Trump’s post on a technicality, implying that, should they succeed in assassinating the President, Iran might be just fine.

O’Donnell claimed that Trump’s power only existed in “lightweight fiction that include, say, Bond villains who issue orders to destroy the world if anything happens to them.”

 

 

First he was Satan, now Trump’s a Bond villain. Add that to the endless list of names the left will call their favorite orange boogeyman. 

This new threat from Trump, O’Donnell cried, was “Constitutional madness.” “Dead presidents don’t bomb,” he said.

Sure, if Trump meets his end from an Iranian assassin, he probably won’t be the one to push the button himself. But if Iran killed our president, that would be an unmitigated act of war. J.D. Vance, even as a skeptic of the Iran bombings, surely wouldn’t hesitate to respond.

But O’Donnell suggested that Vance wouldn’t definitely do that. Instead, he acted like what the Vice President’s tendencies and loyalties were complete mysteries, and blamed White House reporters for not grilling Vance about precisely this subject:

Here's the really, really crazy thing about the state of the White House press corps. In the year and a half since February 4th, 2025, when Donald Trump first said he left instructions to obliterate Iran if he is assassinated, not one White House reporter, and not one reporter anywhere else with access to J.D. Vance, has ever asked the Vice President if he has been given that order by Donald Trump and if he intends to follow that order if he becomes President in this scenario Donald Trump imagines. . . Will J.D. Vance give the order to kill everyone in Iran?

 

 

Even though leftist networks like MS NOW are crumbling, they still have reporters that attend every briefing from the administration. O’Donnell’s colleagues could easily reach out to Vance if they wanted to ask that question. So, why haven’t they? According to O’Donnell, it’s either because the reporters have too much “intellectual laziness,” or, “because everyone in the world who needs to know about these things, very much including the regime in Iran, knows that the Constitution does not allow dead presidents to bomb anyone.”

It’s less the Constitution and more the laws of nature that don’t let dead people drop bombs. However, O'Donnell also claimed that if Vance were to carry out Trump's desire, it would be "morally repugnant" despite Trump's post saying nothing about an order "to kill everyone."

 

 

The liberal media wasn’t harping on Trump’s post for its Constitutional accuracy. Instead, they’re talking about it because they want their audience to think Trump wants to kill over 93 million Iranians.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

MS NOW's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
7/13/26
10:04:19 p.m. Eastern

 

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Well, Donald Trump's childish fantasy about what the presidency is could now destroy the careers of people who share that fantasy. 

Just before midnight on Friday, Donald Trump proved once again that he thinks that the title “President of the United States” comes with powers that only exist in fiction, lightweight fiction that include, say, Bond villains who issue orders to destroy the world if anything happens to them. 

Donald Trump actually wrote at 11:18 p.m. on Friday, "1000 missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!" Exclamation point. "Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing and able for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran." 

That Trump composition is overflowing with more than one variety of madness. 

But for the moment, let's just consider the constitutional madness. Dead presidents don't bomb. 

Donald Trump actually thinks that orders given by a dead president are something that "The U.S. Military is ready, willing and able" to do. 

The next time any general testifies to Congress, that general should be asked if the United States military is ready to carry out the destruction of Iran for Donald Trump if Donald Trump is assassinated.

That general might very well be fired if that general testifies that, of course, the military doesn't take orders from dead presidents and that the only the new president, in this scenario, J.D. Vance, could order a military attack on Iran. 

Donald Trump obviously doesn't know that. I mean, he really doesn't know that. 

It's not the first time Donald Trump has said this crazy, after-death threat. On February 4th, 2025, the New York Times reporter David Sanger ran a story under the headline "Trump Says He Left Instructions to ‘Obliterate’ Iran if It Assassinates Him." The Times article included this line: "In fact, experts say, a president cannot leave instructions for military action after his death. That decision would have to be made by his successor, who would then be commander in chief." 

Yes, experts say that, as do high school students, and anyone else who has the vaguest idea of what the presidency and vice president are and how they work. 

Here's the really, really crazy thing about the state of the White House press corps. In the year and a half since February 4th, 2025, when Donald Trump first said he left instructions to obliterate Iran if he is assassinated, not one White House reporter, and not one reporter anywhere else with access to J.D. Vance, has ever asked the Vice President if he has been given that order by Donald Trump and if he intends to follow that order if he becomes President in this scenario Donald Trump imagines.

And since Friday night at midnight, no reporter has made any attempt to ask J.D. Vance about Donald Trump saying "Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing and able . . . to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran. 

Will J.D. Vance give the order to kill everyone in Iran? 

That's the kind of thing that the formerly serious Hugh Hewitt would have asked Donald Trump years ago, before Hugh Hewitt decided to become a Trump cheerleader. In a live interview with Donald Trump today, this is the only thing Hugh Hewitt or Donald Trump said about J.D. Vance.

[Cut to audio]

HUGH HEWITT: Now that - if the Democrats win the House, they're going to impeach you. And I don't care what the argument is. They're just going to find a way to impeach you. You know, J.D. Vance could represent you, and he can be in the Senate doing the same thing. Have you thought about that? He's a good lawyer.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't like to think about it too much because I think we're going to do well.

[Cut back to live]

O'DONNELL: "He's a good lawyer" who has never tried a case, never defended a client in the courtroom anywhere. 

There are two reasons why the White House press corps has never asked J.D. Vance whether he will follow Donald Trump's orders after Donald Trump is gone. 

One is the intellectual laziness to many of them bring to their job and the other—the other thing is, this is the biggest part of it, I guess, no one believes Donald Trump. No one in the world believes Donald Trump about this. No one in Iran believes that the President of the United States can leave orders that then get executed after he's gone, because everyone in the world who needs to know about these things, very much including the regime in Iran, knows that the Constitution does not allow dead presidents to bomb anyone. 

That power would not belong to Donald Trump in the scenario that he presents. It would belong to the new President, J.D. Vance. The whole world knows that. 

But Donald Trump's utter immunity to personal humiliation allows him to publicly issue this utterly empty, completely frivolous, and morally repugnant threat that reeks of constitutional illiteracy.

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